Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I will not rise to the Deputy's provocation. The purpose of sections 4 and 5 of the Bill is to ensure that agencies involved in the making of arrangements for adoption are registered in the register of accredited bodies. Deputy Shatter put down an amendment in regard to section 5 on Committee Stage and I acknowledged the point he made, namely, that there is a risk that simply providing legal advice in regard to adoption may result in the commission of an offence. The same might apply in regard to transferring a child to the State which is not the intent of these provisions, as explained on Committee Stage.

The purpose of the amendment to section 5 is to make certain that perfectly legitimate activities are not caught by the definition, rendering those activities unlawful. The purpose of the amendment to section 147 is to clarify that only accredited bodies may make arrangements for the adoption of a child and that the courts shall have regard to the carrying out of those activities which are being deleted from section 5 and brought into section 147. These are the matters set out in sections 4 and 5 for the purpose of determining whether a person or body has contravened the Act by making arrangements for the adoption of a child.

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