Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for keeping the witnesses waiting. We had more matters than usual to deal with this morning and I thank them for their patience. I have some questions initially and we might have the opportunity of another round of questions later because this is a matter we must tease out. The submission refers to issues around a second parent adoption. Dr. Bracken said: "The only option is for the couple to apply for second parent adoption, which we do not believe to be an adequate solution." Perhaps she will outline the difficulties with it, apart from the obvious two levels of parent which is not going to work.

What specific difficulties do the witnesses foresee? Some people would consider second parent adoption to be a workable solution, while recognising that it is not ideal. However, I believe this will create more problems than it fixes. The witnesses might outline their views on that.