Hi everyone, Thank you very much for your lovely comments on our update yesterday. Your encouragement and support is always welcome and very much appreciated! Today a demonstration happened outside the Dáil where some families affected by the implementation of Parts 2, 3 and 9 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 gathered together to be visible. Unfortunately and regrettably we were unable to attend but a lady from the LGBTQ Families and Allies Ireland page on Facebook, Trisha Gormely, kindly posted about how the demonstration unfolded today. Minister Katherine Zappone and Minister Simon Harris (Min. Harris only came out after families requested to meet him) came out to meet families who had gathered. Minister Harris accepted cards made by parents and children who are greatly affected by the delay in implementation of Parts 2, 3 and 9 of the CFRA 2015. Trisha also stated that Minister Harris reiterated that he will put legislation to the Dáil before summer recess and provided a timeline of October for commencement. Families were afforded the opportunity to speak with both Ministers about the strain and stresses that the delays have caused in their family life. We call today’s demonstration a win and another step in the right direction. The next big step, we have been told, by Conor Stitt (PA in Leinster House), is where the Dáil (Seanad) will debate the bill in its substantive form. This bill in this case is an amendment to the primary legislation (CFRA 2015). This sees the technical issues in the CFRA 2015 fixed. Conor says that the amended bill will most likely be called The Children and Family Relationships (Amendment) 2018. He has also encouraged families to attend this debate if they can. We look forward to more details about the time and date of this debate and will most likely attend. He also informed us that bills have to go through 10 legislative stages to be enacted, 6 of which are debates. So for now we wait and hopefully soon we will be listening in on a debate ourselves. Amanda and Lesley x