On Monday, 25 April 2016, Dr Fergus Ryan of the Department of Law appeared on Newstalk Breakfast, Midlands 103 (Midlands Today) and on Radio Kerry discussing proposals for the reform of succession law. He was responding to a Law Reform Commission Issues Paper on section 117 of the Succession Act 1965, which allows a child to sue a deceased parent’s estate where they allege they have not been properly provided for on the parent’s death. Demographic changes (in particular longer lifespans) mean that inheritances on the death of a parent may not be as generous as in the past. Depending on the circumstances, section 117 provides a possible avenue for relief, but children otherwise have no automatic right to inherit when a parent dies making a will.
A podcast of the Newstalk Breakfast show is available online.
Dr Fergus Ryan lectures in Family Law on the Department's LLB programme and in Gender, Sexuality and the Law and Marriage and the Law on the LLM (Global Legal Studies) masters degree.