Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

It is not an exact science. It is a case of talking about 365 days. I know that a year is a long time in the life of a child but the Deputy is talking about a fairly arbitrary distinction, one way or the other. All I am doing in this legislation is trying to give this House an occasion on which to unite to bring about small but significant improvements in our law and to deal with the anomaly that arose from the failure to comprehend section 6 of the 1993 Act in the changes we made last summer.

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