Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Before I refer to the Bill, I wish to place on record my deep appreciation for two brave women whose lifelong work has led to the point where, for all of its flaws, we are discussing this Bill. Lydia Foy is a champion of gender equality. Her commitment to human and gender rights has inspired Irish people affected by these issues - young and old, women, men and intersex - to speak up and have their voices heard. One hundred years ago the gender recognition fight was about achieving votes and equal rights for women. That fight is still only partially won. Women occupy just 16% of the seats in this Chamber, which is a sad statistic in international terms. We have a long way to go in this country before women achieve equal rights with men. The road to gender recognition is an extremely long one. For transgender women and men to even get on that road has been a long struggle. Lydia Foy has led that struggle in Ireland.

She deserves to be thanked by this House and at the same time given a public apology. It is shameful that it has taken her more than 17 years and three court cases to have the human rights of so many Irish people recognised by the Oireachtas. The other woman I wish to acknowledge is an Englishwoman, Christine Goodwin, who sadly passed away last December at the age of 77 years after dedicating a lifetime to changing the law in her country. Christine Goodwin's success in the European Court of Human Rights was instrumental in the subsequent 2007 judgment of our High Court that Ireland had breached Lydia Foy's human rights in a similar manner. The Government of the United Kingdom responded within two years of the Christine Goodwin judgment by introducing the Gender Recognition Act 2004, but for another seven years this State continued to deny human rights to the thousands of people in this country who were affected by the Lydia Foy ruling. For three of those years the former Fianna Fáil led Government had the audacity to challenge Lydia Foy in the Supreme Court.

To say that Ireland urgently needs gender recognition legislation is to state the obvious. What we do not need is a near carbon copy of ten year old British legislation. We have learned a lot in the past ten years about how to legislate for this issue, and Ireland can gain from that knowledge. Deciding to disregard an official birth gender is not an easy choice for any individual to make. When such a significant life decision is made, it should be trusted and respected rather than second guessed. If a medical fact is deemed to be absolutely necessary, the word of a GP should be considered to be as valuable as that of any other medical expert. This legislation reflects nothing of what we know about the psychological damage that can occur if gender recognition is forcibly delayed beyond the formative teenage years and it needs to be adapted to meet the specific needs of fragile young people. Furthermore, it ignores the existence of an inter-sex gender. I also have significant concerns that the Bill may in fact be unconstitutional in its requirement that married persons must divorce prior to recognition of a gender change. It is deeply worrying that the State might be contemplating legislation which would compel a married couple to live apart for four years and then divorce, and for a family to be forcibly broken up.

Where human rights are concerned, the Oireachtas should use all the tools at its disposal to repair what otherwise may be an unconstitutional Bill. That was my opinion a few weeks ago when I voted in favour of the Protection of Life in Pregnancy (Amendment) (Fatal Foetal Abnormalities) Bill 2013. It remains my position now. I support the passage of this Bill to the next stage of the legislative process and trust that the Members of this House can work together to achieve the necessary amendments.

I thank all the relevant organisations, including Transgender Equality Network Ireland, my colleagues in the Labour Party and friends and constituents in County Wicklow who have contacted me regarding this issue in the past four years. I promise them I will continue to fight the good fight. I also thank the Minister, Deputy Burton, who has worked extremely hard in the past four years to bring this Bill before the House.

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