PART I.

Preliminary and General.

1. —This Act may be cited as the Adoption Act, 1952.

2. —This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister may by order appoint.

3. —In this Act—

“adoption order” means an order under section 9;

“the Board” means the body established by section 8;

“child” means (save where the context otherwise requires) any person under twenty-one years of age;

“guardian”, in relation to a child, means a person appointed, according to law, to be guardian of his person by deed or will or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction;

“interim order” means an order under section 17;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Justice;

“orphan” means a child whose parents are dead;

“parent” does not include the natural father of an illegitimate child;

“prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under section 5;

“registered adoption society” means a body of persons entered in the Adoption Societies Register;

“relative” means grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt, whether of the whole blood, of the half-blood or by affinity, relationship to an illegitimate child being traced through the mother only.

4. —In this Act references to the making of arrangements for the adoption of a child shall be construed as including references to—

(a) the making of any agreement or arrangement for, or facilitating, the adoption or maintenance of the child by any person, and

(b) the initiation of or taking part in any negotiations of which the purpose or effect is the making of any such agreement or arrangement, and

(c) the causing of another to initiate or take part in any such negotiations.

5. —The Board, with the consent of the Minister, may make rules for the regulation of its procedure or for any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed.

6. —Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been facilitated by any neglect on the part of any person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, that person shall also be guilty of the offence and may be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

7. —The expenses incurred by a Minister of State or the Board in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.