PART I

Preliminary and General

1. —(1) This Act may be cited as the Status of Children Act, 1987.

(2) (a) This Part (other than sections 3 and 4 ) shall come into operation on the passing of this Act and the said sections 3 and 4 shall come into operation one month after such passing.

(b) Parts II to IX shall come into operation six months after the passing of this Act or on such earlier day or days (not being earlier than one month after such passing) as may be fixed therefor by order or orders of the Minister for Justice, either generally or with reference to any particular Part or Parts.

2. —In this Act, a reference to a Part is to a Part of this Act unless the context requires that a reference to some other enactment is intended.

3. —(1) In deducing any relationship for the purposes of this Act or of any Act of the Oireachtas passed after the commencement of this section, the relationship between every person and his father and mother (or either of them) shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be determined irrespective of whether his father and mother are or have been married to each other, and all other relationships shall be determined accordingly.

(2) (a) An adopted person shall, for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, be deemed from the date of the adoption to be the child of the adopter or adopters and not the child of any other person or persons.

(b) In this subsection “adopted person” means a person who has been adopted under the Adoption Acts, 1952 to 1976, or, where the person has been adopted outside the State, whose adoption is recognised by virtue of the law for the time being in force in the State.

4. —In this Act and in every Act of the Oireachtas passed after the commencement of this section—

(a) a reference, however expressed, to a person whose parents have not married each other shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as including a reference to a person whose parents are or have been married to each other but between whom there has been no subsisting marriage at any time during the period of ten months before the person's birth, or during the persons's lifetime, and

(b) a reference, however expressed, to a person whose parents have married each other shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as excluding a reference to a person in respect of whom paragraph (a) of this section applies.

5. —It is hereby declared that, in relation to a child, any reference to “father”, “mother” or “parent” in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Acts, 1956 and 1986, includes and shall be deemed always to have included the father, mother or parent, as the case may require, who was not married to the child's other parent at the time of the child's birth or at any time during the period of ten months preceding the birth.