Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I attended a meeting on Sunday of 55 LGBTQ parents and 20 of their children. They are affected by an issue which a majority of people in society are not aware of - and probably a majority in the LGBTQ community are not even aware of - whereby, despite three years having passed since the passing of the Children and Family Relationships Act and the advent of marriage equality, children of same-sex married couples are still unable to have both their parents registered on their birth certificates.

In terms of the action plan that has been compiled and is being got ready for publication in the Department of the Taosieach, there are some actions in there that it has been decided to imlpement initially to see if that is sufficient in terms of the current ways we aer operating but also to bring that up one step further. If some of thjose things do not work, I know there would be an openness to mvoe forward. For examle, it may be the case that in the context of that action plan we could estrablish a new national advisory coucil on online safety to provide a forum for expert stakeholder input in advice for Government, to creat a single online access point on Government.ie as the authorititative source on information and onine ssafety. However, as the Deputy alsopoints out in ergard to my own role in my Department, parents and childern, I have identified a number of ways in which the Department is supporting that work with parents in regadr to their children

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I understand that the commencement of the relevant sections is not the Minister's responsibility and I appreciate her taking the question, which is on the impact this is having on the rights of these children. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of children who are currently affected and as time passes, more and more will be affected and more and more serious issues will be posed.

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