LEGISLATION TO REMOVE guardianship rights from convicted killers will be brought before Cabinet today.  

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan will ask the Government to approve the Guardianship of Infants (Amendment) Bill 2025, which has become known as Valerie’s Law. 

The law is named after Valerie French Kilroy, a mother of three who was killed by her husband James Kilroy. The body of the mother of three was found at her home in Kilbree Lower, near Islandeady, Co Mayo on 14 June 2019. She was 41 when she died.

Valerie French’s family had called for a review of the law to stop people who kill their partners from having parental rights to their children.

Her brother, David French, said that Ireland should follow the lead of the UK, where people who have killed their partners are now unable to have parental rights to their surviving children.

Murderers in the UK have their parental rights suspended under what is called Jade’s Law. The law creates an automatic suspension of parental responsibility while any mother or father is serving time for killing the person with whom they shared that responsibility.

The legislation being brought to Cabinet this morning would require an application to be brought before the District Court to remove guardianship of a parent who is convicted of the murder or manslaughter of another parent or guardian.

It states that this should be within six months of a conviction, and that the court should order another guardian be appointed for the child. 

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to examine proposals “to remove guardianship rights from those convicted of killing their partners or a parent of their child”. 

An independent Study on Familicide & Domestic and Family Violence Death, published in May 2023, and a follow-up interim report in 2024 both made recommendations on the State’s response in cases such as these.

O’Callaghan is expected to tell Cabinet that he strongly believes the issue of guardianship of children in a domestic violence or coercive control scenario should not be a matter of private civil law, but should instead be regarded as a child protection and welfare issue.