An Oireachtas committee is set to recommend a referendum on the rights of the child.

Mary O’Rourke, Chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children said a suggested wording for the referendum from children’s charity Barnardos is being legally examined by advisors to the committee.

At the launch of a report by the One in Four campaign group, Ms O’Rourke said that the move was intended to give social workers confidence in what they were doing.

The Committee began examining the possibility of an amendment in the wake of a number of Supreme Court decisions some years ago.

In the Baby Ann case, the Supreme Court ruled that the natural parents of a child placed for adoption had the right to custody of the child as against the adoptive couple. The adoption order had not been finalised and there was a long delay in returning the child to her natural parents.

Commentators said that the decision showed that the Constitution preferred the rights of parents over the rights and best interests of children. However, the facts of the case showed that the social worker had not fully kept the natural parents of the child informed of their rights.

In his Supreme Court ruling, Justice Adrian Hardiman rejected the argument that the Constitution preferred parents to children.

He said that the Constitution preferred parents to “third parties, official or private, priest or social worker, as the enablers and guardians of the child’s rights”.