David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their consideration and I acknowledge again the lacuna in the adoptive leave legislation. There is no discrimination in this Bill but it is in other legislation and we want to correct it. I am committing to it. I am sorry we are not in a position to do it now but we want to ensure we get this right. Deputies would be the first to take me to task if we brought something forward that led to other errors but I am very anxious to get this right. I had hoped to be able to do it now but it is unfortunate that it proved more complex than we thought.

Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin spoke about notice. This comes into force on 1 November and six weeks of notice is required in the legislation. People will have that amount of notice and I am clarifying this in case people think it will just happen on 1 November. I agree with Deputy Kenny's comment that the first year of a child's life and those early memories are so important, so it is best if children are with their parents. That is the intention of all of us in this House. All kinds of research has indicated that early memories are very important in this respect. I thank Deputies for their support of the legislation and we want to see it progress so its provisions can come into force by November.

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