Hi everyone, Things have been very slow since we were last in touch. We received two further letters and an email. Senator Fintan Warfield has also raised the issue again in the Seanad. One letter we received was from Erica Hill, Secretariat to The President Michael D. Higgins explaining that the nature of his role as President prevents him from intervening or making representation about matters that fall within the remit of the Government, the Courts, Local Authorities or any institutions of the State. We also received acknowledgement, on May 3rd, of receipt of our letter and petition which we sent to the Ombudsman. We had a further phone call with Ciara Gill, Policy Officer at the Ombudsman for Children’s Office in order to clarify some details concerning our petition. We were informed that if the Ombudsman gave this more attention, it would not be directly on behalf of our family, but done in a more general way, for all children affected by similar situations and this is what we want. We want all children to have their families recognised and we want children, entitled to an Irish Passport, to be able to get one. The Ombudsman for Children’s Office will inform us whether or not they will be able to help. We are unsure when we will hear from them again. Today we received an unexpected email from Paula Smeaton, Private Secretary to Simon Harris (Department of Health). The following is the information contained in that email: ............................... Dear Ms. Coyne-Bingham The Minister for Health, Simon Harris, T.D., has asked me to thank you for your recent email concerning the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015. A number of technical drafting issues have come to light in relation to Parts 2 & 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015. The implications of these issues are being explored by officials in the Department of Health and the Office of the Attorney General, and as these discussions are ongoing, we do not wish to preempt the outcome by citing specific details. Clarification on whether primary legislation is required to resolve these issues is being sought. In the event that primary legislation is required the Minister for Health would seek to deal with it as a matter of urgency. I hope this is of assistance to you. ............................. We responded, stressing our frustration at the matter but that we also understand that it takes time to arrange everything. We pointed out that the departments concerned need to be aware that we are more than three years beyond the time that the Children and Family Relationships Act was put in place and that they are effectively denying rights to our child and many others. We reiterated that this delay is impacting family life for us greatly and that we, as stated in the cover letter of our petition, will certainly take it further if we are left waiting much longer. How long we should or will give them is something we haven’t determined yet. We feel that the issues we raised are in the minds of relevant departments and are no longer something that is being pushed aside again and again. Senator Fintan Warfield kindly raised the matter in the Seanad again and was responded to with much the same level of detail we received in our email from the Department of Health. https://www.facebook.com/fintanwarfield/videos/1775908029167360/ Where do we go from here, we’re not sure but we have assured departments that we will not let this lie and they will continue to hear from us. If you are affected too, please make it your business to be heard Amanda and Lesley xxx