Census Age questions

Thanks for all your informative replies, I appreciate it.

Age of Majority is 18 and Full Age is 21, is what I had understood but see here

http://www.lawreform.ie/_fileupload/consultation%20papers/wpAgeofMajority.htm


CHAPTER II THE AGE OF MAJORITY

2.1

In our law, “infancy” or “minority” is a status which was recognised by the Common Law and goes back to the earliest times. This status ceased when the minor attained the age of 21 years. In text books and statutes the words “infant” and “minor” are interchangeable and are used to describe a person who has not come of age. As indicated in para. 1.3 supra the terms “minor” and “minority” will be used in preference to “infant” and “infancy” in this paper.

2.2

The limitations on the legal capacity of a minor are not imposed to deprive the minor of his rights, but rather to protect him against his own inexperience and improvidence. Normally, a person who ceases to be a minor has full legal capacity and may act independently of a parent, a guardian or the court. The terms “age of majority” and “full age” are used to describe the age at which a person acquires the capacity to exercise all the rights of an individual who is not under a disability.

2.3

In this chapter it is proposed to trace the development of the present law relating to the age of majority in our legal system and in other legal systems.

A. Ireland

2.4

Although the Brehon Laws seem to have recognised that a child required some legal protection, the concept of a fixed age at which a young person would attain maturity was not apparently known to them. Normally a son had no power to make a binding contract during the life of his father and while he was a member of his father's household.

2.5

After the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century the invaders started to impose their system of law on the country. Several hundred years elapsed before the English common law system, as supplemented by statute law, effectively became the law throughout the land.

2.6

The common law treated a person under 21 years as a minor, and gave such a person a special status. The law acted upon the principle that a minor should be protected from his own improvidence and inexperience, but that this should be done so as not to cause unnecessary hardship to any person dealing with the minor