Mr. Broden Giambrone:

I will be brief. On the first question on gender recognition and like-minded countries, we are looking at Argentina because, as we say, that is the North Star. Europe does not have that North Star. The proposed recommendations of the gender recognition advisory groups are drawn from the United Kingdom's Gender Recognition Act of 2004. That was an important and progressive Act when it came in, but nine years on, it has become clear that it contains some major shortcomings, and pitfalls have arisen. Not everyone who should be able to avail of their right to be recognised in the UK is able to do so through that scheme for many of the reasons we have highlighted today, including issues such as the validation process, the panel process, and many of the imported schemes. That is probably seen as one of the more progressive ones but we have it on good authority and also from anecdotal evidence from the transgender community that it is not working. We are in a position now where we can make legislation work for the transgender community in Ireland.

Countries across Europe are now examining their gender recognition Acts. What is interesting is that, for the most part, most countries in Europe have gender recognition. In countries like Sweden it was introduced in the 1970s. While that was progressive in the 1970s, it is now considering updating it. Countries like Sweden and the Netherlands are in the process of examining introducing more human rights-based legislation. In the coming years, we will see more countries moving in that direction but, unfortunately, because the process was brought in at an earlier date, we are now looking at moving it forward progressively in Ireland because there is nothing in place, and that is a unique opportunity for us.

While the system in Argentina is different and is in a different context, it shares many of the same issues faced by Ireland. Looking to Argentina is useful. In the past year, more than 1,000 people have had their gender recognised and no issues have arisen. People have been able to avail of this process and the sky has not fallen in. There is a real utility in looking at that as a model.

On the final point, it is an opportunity for Ireland to lead the way in terms of human rights in this field. That would not cost anything but it would make a huge difference for a small group of people, and it does not have any significant pitfalls. It is important to keep that in mind.

In terms of the Sinn Féin Bill, I echo Ms Lacey in issuing my sincere apologies for not mentioning that. That was a fantastic Bill published on 23 May by Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh. I would like to commend him highly and Stephanie Lord, who did a significant body of work on that Bill, particularly in looking at the Argentinian model and trying to import that into an Irish context. Similarly, the Bill examines issues of self-determination, the integrity of transgender people, and human rights. That is another excellent model and I would encourage everyone to look at that Bill.

On the intersex issues raised, intersex issues are highly stigmatised in Irish society, even more so than transgender issues. For people who do not know, when we say "intersex" we mean a person who is born with or develops reproductive or sexual anatomy in a different way. Transgender people's identity is different from what was assigned at birth. For intersex people and intersex conditions, that is a little different. It is a highly invisible community but these identities can be quite fluid. There are more than 40 intersex conditions, some of which do not even have names. When someone is born with the condition, the doctors make the best guess they can based on those, but that can change. This area of medicine is not at its fullest and therefore what we see is that people might come to a different identity in childhood or in adolescence. That is the reason it is vital we have a gender recognition Act that can accommodate these individuals because if we do not do that, situations can arise where people are denied access to schools, which can put a major burden on their families.

The inability to support intersex families can further stigmatise people. This is a significant issue and both of the Private Members' Bills we are discussing would go a long way towards providing support for these individuals and families. The asylum-seeking community is another issue and something which has only recently been highlighted for TENI. People seeking asylum face multiple discrimination. They often face discrimination in their countries of origin and also face it when they come to Ireland. Individuals who have faced persecution or discrimination in their countries and are now claiming asylum here have come to us. They run into many issues regarding sex-segregated facilities. They have documentation from their country of origin which they could not change there because there is no gender recognition process. When they come to Ireland they cannot change their documentation here. Not only do they struggle with coming to a new country but they are further stigmatised in Irish society. This can be a real challenge.