Children Act, 1997

Amendment of section 41 of Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act, 1989 .

16.—The Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act, 1989 , is hereby amended, in section 41, by the substitution of the following subsections for subsections (1) and (2):

“(1) In this section ‘dependent member of the family’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 2 of the Family Law Act, 1995 .

(2) Where the court grants a decree of judicial separation, it may declare either of the spouses concerned to be unfit to have custody of any dependent member of the family who is a minor and, if it does so and the spouse to whom the declaration related is a parent of a dependent member of the family who is a minor, that spouse shall not, on the death of the other spouse, be entitled as of right to the custody of that minor.”.