Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 7, to delete lines 1 to 3 and substitute the following: “(d) “gender” means the gender of a person or the gender which a person expresses or with which the person identifies, and includes the male, female, transgender and non-binary genders,”.

The issue is there is no express linkage with the Equal Status Act in this section. While I accept the Minister’s bona fides on amendment No. 19 and the previous one concerning Travellers, this one is not expressly linked in terms of gender. It is fair enough when the Minister refers to the intention to update the Equal Status Act 2000 but there is no reference in this section to that Act. Either we include a reference to it and it follows from the other sections of the Bill, or we substitute this amendment. There is not a reference to the Equal Status Act because I am not sure that Act goes into gender in the way we would like today.