Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Will the Minister of State respond in respect of the anomaly I mentioned but to which his script may not contain reference? It is anomalous that the Department of Foreign Affairs would recognise someone as being of female gender, while the Department of Health and Children or the HSE may insist that said person is a male. That is quite an odd position for the State to occupy, particularly in light of the High Court judgment handed down before Christmas. As already stated, this matter was again dealt with by the courts last week. In those proceedings, the State was represented by the Office of the Attorney General.

Will the Minister of State shed some light on what, if any, action the State intends to take in respect of this issue? Is the State going to appeal the High Court decision to the Supreme Court? I hope it will not because if it does, it is unlikely to succeed. If it did succeed, the matter would end up before the European Court of Human Rights. They would come to their own conclusion, which I believe would be in line with Mr. Justice McKechnie's decision.

I welcome what is in the Passports Bill and accept the Minister of State's explanation for not amending it. It is anomalous that two different Departments might regard the same individual as having a different gender. This goes back in our courts to 2002, when this litigation first came to prominence. I suggest to the Minister of State that the time has come to rectify the matter. What is being done in the Passports Bill is praiseworthy but it highlights the anomaly. It is not unreasonable that the Minister of State should respond to that, even if he does not have a departmental note on it.

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