The House Committee for the Consideration of Bills is expected to go through all clauses of the Divorce Bill by the end of this afternoon’s four-hour session or tomorrow’s, cutting down on their next Friday’s deadline by four clear days.

At a meeting yesterday morning, MPs agreed that the right for adequate maintenance that is to be given to the children of divorced parents until they are 23 years old, if they are in post-secondary education, would be extended to all children.

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said this decision was “a milestone”.

He said that in terms of the Divorce Bill, the children of divorced parents had a guarantee of adequate maintenance until they turned 23 if they wished to continue to study beyond secondary level.

There was, however, also a situation where couples in dysfunctional marriages did not actually separate but ignored the needs of their children.

Such children would, henceforth, have the right to also demand adequate maintenance to enable them to further their education.

The right is to be included in amendments to the Civil Code.

The committee, under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Ċensu Galea, is made up of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tonio Borg, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Francis Zammit Dimech, Evarist Bartolo, Owen Bonnici and Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.

They are assisted by Advocate General Peter Grech and Donatella Frendo Dimech from his office, Deborah Schembri, Angele Attard and David Thake.

They also have the painstaking task of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s so that the legal jargon would be in place for the session today week which is expected to approve the Bill in committee.

The third reading would be voted upon at a separate sitting half an hour later.