Ms Simonetta Ryan:

To answer Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, we expect the timeframe to be short. There will be a backlog of people to be dealt with, but the Department will deal with it and it will not involve huge numbers. Austria and Germany have completely different constitutions and we are back to the difficulties with the very specific constitutional issues we have in Ireland.

The Deputy also asked about where it was medically obvious somebody had been categorised in the wrong gender at birth. There is already provision in the 2004 Act for the correction of errors by the Registrar General. This legislation will provide a further remedy in such a case.

Deputy Brendan Griffin asked about the marriage issue.

Where a man and a woman enter into a marriage and the gender of one of them changes, it is not an accepted fact among lawyers that this does not affect the position of the marriage. That is my understanding. It is not an accepted fact, rather it is a view. There is a provision in the legislation on revoking or reversing the gender change, but I understand from talking to people and what has been stated at this meeting that this in itself would be a huge decision for people to make. It would be reckless to use that provision as a remedy.

I do not know if Mr. Feely wishes to comment on the correction of errors.