73.— The Act of 1965 is amended by inserting the following after section 67:

“Shares of surviving civil partner and issue.

67A.— (1) If an intestate dies leaving a civil partner and no issue, the civil partner shall take the whole estate.

(2) If an intestate dies leaving a civil partner and issue—

(a) subject to subsections (3) to (7), the civil partner shall take two-thirds of the estate; and

(b) the remainder shall be distributed among the issue in accordance with section 67B(2).

(3) The court may, on the application by or on behalf of a child of an intestate who dies leaving a civil partner and one or more children, order that provision be made for that child out of the intestate’s estate only if the court is of the opinion that it would be unjust not to make the order, after considering all the circumstances, including—

(a) the extent to which the intestate has made provision for that child during the intestate’s lifetime,

(b) the age and reasonable financial requirements of that child,

(c) the intestate’s financial situation, and

(d) the intestate’s obligations to the civil partner.

(4) The court, in ordering provision of an amount under subsection (3) shall ensure that—

(a) the amount to which any issue of the intestate is entitled shall not be less than that to which he or she would have been entitled had no such order been made, and

(b) the amount provided shall not be greater than the amount to which the applicant would have been entitled had the intestate died leaving neither spouse nor civil partner.

(5) Rules of court shall provide for the conduct of proceedings under this section in a summary manner.

(6) The costs in the proceedings shall be at the discretion of the court.

(7) An order under this section shall not be made except on an application made within 6 months from the first taking out of representation of the deceased’s estate.

Share of issue where no surviving spouse or surviving civil partner.

67B.— (1) If an intestate dies leaving issue and no spouse or civil partner, the estate shall be distributed among the issue in accordance with subsection (2).

(2) If all the issue are in equal degree of relationship to the deceased the distribution shall be in equal shares among them; if they are not, it shall be per stirpes.”.