Mr. Broden Giambrone:

I will respond to the question on numbers. It is difficult for us to estimate how many transgender people there are in Ireland. There are a great many reasons for this. People do not come out. There is no formal process for people to come out so we cannot give definitive figures. In the past year, however, more than 600 people have reached out to Transgender Equality Network Ireland, TENI, through our support and information line. In 2011, we know that 300 people went to different support groups throughout Ireland. The way they deduce broader transgender populations in Scotland is that they assume that for every person who goes to a support group, one can multiply that figure by ten. In any case, we are looking at thousands of transgender people. As Irish society becomes more open and more inclusive, more people come out. Anecdotally we know that each year we are being contacted more and more, new groups are being contacted and the support groups are being accessed. It will become more of an issue as time goes by.

The gender recognition advisory group, GRAG, was established and then disbanded. The potential of bringing it back was raised. That is under the Minister's remit. One of our concerns is about the delay. Many of these issues were raised during the process when the gender recognition advisory group invited submissions. If one reads through the GRAG report, the voices that come across most strongly are much more the medical experts - the psychiatrists - who put in submissions. One does not hear the voice of transgender people and their experiences, which is one of the reasons we wanted to have Mr. Darrin Mathews and Ms Victoria Mullin to speak to that. Their voice is important as the legislation will affect people's lives. Many of the issues were raised through the submission's process, both written and oral, and yet they did not make it into the GRAG report. I caution about that danger. It is five years since Dr. Foy won her case and still we are waiting. That is the challenge.

The Minister spoke at the fourth European transgender council that TENI held in September. This was the largest conference for transgender people in Europe. It was quite a big event for us. The Minister indicated that the legislation would come before this committee and there would be opportunities. We would be more than happy to come back at a later date, before the legislation comes up for discussion, because there are more issues to raise. There will be many legal issues to tease out.

There will also be debate in the Seanad, as requested by Senator Katherine Zappone. It was scheduled initially for this year during December or during January, but unfortunately it has been pushed back. We do not have the date. This will give another opportunity for us to tease out some of these issues.

With the permission of the committee, I will pass the question on support to my colleague, Mr. Matthews.