The Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland ensured that certain adoption orders would not be found to be unconstitutional because they had not been made by a court. It was effected by the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution (Adoption) Act, 1979 which was approved by referendum on 5 July 1979 and signed into law on 3 August 1979 of the same year.
Contents
Changes to the text
Overview
In 1977 it came to light that for technical reasons child adoption orders made by An Bord Uchtála (the Adoption Board) might be found to be unconstitutional because they were not made by a court or judge. An amendment was therefore required to put the validity of these orders beyond question. The Sixth Amendment was introduced by a Fianna Fáil government but was supported by every other major political party and not controversial. It was put to a referendum on the same day as the similarly uncontroversial Seventh Amendment which dealt with university constituencies for the election of the Senate. The Sixth Amendment was approved almost unanimously on a low turnout with 601,694 (99.0%) votes in favour and 6,265 (1.0%) against.