S.I. No. 254/1993:

ADOPTION REGULATIONS, 1993.

ADOPTION REGULATIONS, 1993.

The Minister for Health, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 9 (3) of the Adoption Act, 1991 (No. 14 of 1991), hereby makes the following Regulations:

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Adoption Regulations, 1993.

2. These Regulations shall come into operation on the 1st day of September, 1993.

3. In these Regulations--

"the Act" means the Adoption Act, 1991 ;

"place" has the meaning assigned to it in the Adoption Act, 1991 .

4. Where a document or documents of the kind described in section 9 (1) of the Act is or are not provided for or made available under the law of the place where the adoption was effected, a document, duly authenticated, which purports to be--

( a ) a certified copy of an entry made, under and in accordance with the law of the place where the adoption was effected, in a public register relating to the recording of adoptions and showing that the adoption has been effected in that place, or

( b ) a certificate or statement that the adoption has been effected, signed or purporting to be signed by a person authorised by the law of the place where the adoption was effected to sign such a certificate or statement, or a certified copy of such certificate or statement,

shall, in substitution for a document or documents of the kind described in the said section 9 (1) and without further proof, unless the contrary is shown, be admissible as evidence that an adoption outside the State has been effected.

5. For the purposes of Article (4) of these Regulations a document shall be regarded as duly authenticated if it purports--

( a ) to bear the seal of the court or other authority or the person or persons by which or by whom it was issued or executed, or

( b ) to be certified--

(i) by a person in his capacity as a judge or officer of that court or in his capacity as that authority or as a member or officer of that authority, or

(ii) by the person or persons by whom it was issued or executed.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Health, this 31st day of August, 1993.

BRENDAN HOWLIN,

Minister for Health.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These regulations prescribe the circumstances in which certain documents other than those specified in section 9 of the Adoption Act, 1991 shall be acceptable as evidence of an adoption effected outside the State.