Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 36:

In page 12, to delete line 32 and substitute the following:

"(c) an indication of the person's gender using the abbreviation M (male), F (female or X (indeterminate/unspecified/intersex).".

This amendment is about the indication on the certificate. The section provides that a gender recognition certificate shall specify the date on which it is issued, the person's forename and surname, the person's date of birth and the person's gender. It does not fully cover all of the people in society. The majority of people are male or female but there are those who are intersex, whether it is an indeterminate or unspecified sex. Sometimes it may take many years before a person discovers that he or she has a complicated DNA system. In recent years I have read more and more about cases where a man, in one case, discovered he had full operational female genitals. He had a womb and it was conceivable that he could give birth, if he was lucky enough. He had lived as a man for many years. The anomaly was spotted during a medical procedure.

I recall the presentations on the Bill and the observations in the first instance in the case of some very young people, not many, where there are incidents in which it is more complicated for the medical profession to make a determination. This small amendment would allow us to capture those who do not have a male or female gender. The Minister may be correct in saying that in some ways we do not know enough. If we do not know enough, the easiest thing in the world would be not to allow that gap. It was one of the points that had been highlighted that most of the Bill deals specifically with transgender, those who have transitioned to their preferred gender, but in the case of intersex sometimes there is a complication that it is not necessarily the preferred gender, it is trying to be specific in terms or either of the genders that is being prescribed here. It is a minor technicality. I will not delay the House on it. If the Minister of State cannot take it on board, I hope he would reflect on it and see whether there is another mechanism which would allow us, with all the legal implications this would have, to have that extra box ticked on the certificate.