Ms Fiona Duffy:

I will start by giving a little background. When I started doing this first, there was very little happening in this area and not a lot of knowledge around it, whereas now there is a huge amount of information available. If one looks at what is happening now in terms of the proposed legislation and this committee, there is more and more information available. Anecdotally, one of the very first cases I ever dealt with involved a man who made an appointment with me, arrived at my office and told me he had a five-week old baby living in Ukraine with his wife. He thought he could go to Ukraine, have the baby and just come straight back. We are going back to the dark ages with that case but that is what happened. I was sitting in my office, looking at this person and thinking "Oh my goodness". Anyway, life has changed a lot since and people are much more knowledgeable now. It would be less likely for people to find themselves abroad now, wondering how they are going to get their baby home.

When people come into me looking for advice I always tell them, as a preliminary, that they need to let the Department know of their plans. Certainly, if they have a confirmed pregnancy, I tell them they should get in touch with the Department of Foreign Affairs. The Department cannot and will not do anything at that stage but, as I say to clients, they need to be on the Department's radar so that it knows what is happening, at least. If they communicate, the Department will tell them what the requirements are and so forth. I tend to have very little communication with the Department unless issues arise. I generally leave it up to clients to communicate directly with the Department. Does that answer the Deputy's question?