Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 6:

In page 11, lines 27 to 31, to delete all words from and including “the” in line 27 down to and including line 31 and substitute the following:“the child resides in the State, and”.

Unfortunately I have left my notes behind. The amendments are related. There is somewhat of a difficulty in having such a sharp cut-off at the age of 18 in terms of whether somebody can be adopted. The amendment I propose would give the person who would be the subject of the adoption, and the family, some leeway in that regard and that would be at the discretion of the Adoption Authority of Ireland. I do not ask that the removal of the upper age should be considered, although certain provisions to that effect exist in some jurisdictions, for example, France. It probably seems counter-intuitive to some that adoption should be possible after the age of 18 but it is a long process and in the 2010 Act and some of these provisions there are timeframes involved that result in a situation whereby it might not be possible to conclude the process. For example, a child could be brought into a family at the age of 15, 16 or 17 and due to the timeframes involved and administrative delays the process might not be concluded by the time the child reaches 18. That is relevant and important for a variety of reasons, in particular property rights. If what might otherwise be an adoptive parent were to die intestate that would have serious implications for what an individual might otherwise be entitled to inherit. Even if the person were to die testate it would mean that the young person would be entitled to much lower tax relief on any inheritance he or she would receive. It would also make a difference in relation to dependent child allowances and other social welfare payments. There must be some flexibility. The sharp cut-off of 18 years potentially creates difficulty for families and individuals who would otherwise be the subject of an adoption. There must be flexibility to allow for the fact that there might have been some difficulty or delay in processing an adoption after the age of 18 is reached.