53.—The Maintenance Act, 1994 (as amended by the Act of 1995), is hereby amended—

( a ) in section 3, in subsection (1), by the insertion of the following definition:

"'the Act of 1996' means the Family Law (Divorce) Act, 1996 ;",

( b ) in section 4, by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (a) of subsection (2):

"( a ) For the purposes of section 8 of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1940 , the Act of 1976, the Act of 1988, the Act of 1993 (as amended by this Act), the Act of 1995, the Act of 1996 and this Act, the Central Authority shall have authority to act on behalf of, as the case may be, a maintenance creditor or claimant, within the meaning of section 13 (1), and references in those enactments to a maintenance creditor or such a claimant shall be construed as including references to the Central Authority.",

( c ) in section 14—

(i) in subsection (1) (c), by the substitution of the following subparagraph for subparagraph (i):

"(i) if the amount of the maintenance sought to be recovered exceeds the maximum amount which the District Court has jurisdiction to award under the Act of 1976 or the request is for a relief order (within the meaning of the Act of 1995) or a maintenance pending suit order, a periodical payments order, a secured periodical payments order or a lump sum order (within the meaning, in each case, of the Act of 1996), make an application to the Circuit Court,",

and

(ii) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (3):

"(3) An application referred to in subsection (1) (c) shall be deemed to be an application for a maintenance order under section 5 or section 5A or 21A (inserted by the Status of Children Act, 1987 ) of the Act of 1976, or the appropriate order referred to in subsection (1) (c) (i), as may be appropriate, and to have been made on the date on which the request of the claimant for the recovery of maintenance was received by the Central Authority of the designated jurisdiction concerned.".

ACTS REFERRED TO