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

I will share my time with Deputy Bríd Smith. I welcome the Bill. It is very late but I welcome it on behalf of the LGBTQ+ parents who will have their rights as parents acknowledged and those of their children as a consequence. Serious questions need to be answered about why this legislation has taken three years. I can accept that technical mistakes can happen and so on, but for a long time when we asked questions on this, we were told that there was a problem with one thing or another and the Government was looking at how to resolve them and so on. Eventually, the Government had to return to the House with amending legislation. That should not have happened three years later, but immediately after the problem was recognised.

It is clear this has happened because the community began to mobilise on the issue. Important meetings took place. "We are Family" was the theme of this year's Pride parade and political pressure was bearing down on the Government whereby they could not stand over the situation any longer. It is a movement of people forcing the Government to act on the issue.

I also want to point out the inadequacies of this Bill. I acknowledge that they are rooted in the legislation that was passed three years ago, rather than being inadequacies of this particular Bill, but the number of LGBTQ+ parents who are excluded is an issue. Many of them will gather outside the Dáil at lunchtime tomorrow to protest, and I will join them. They support the passing of the Bill but they demand action to ensure that all parents will be treated equally.

Some of the practical issues have been referred to. I have been in touch with a couple recently, Leeane and Nile. Leeane wrote:

We they had created their baby together, and went through the process every couple does with the intention of creating a human. I willing signed up to love and care for someone for the rest of my life. Is this not what makes a family?

This month, we celebrate gay pride. The theme is "We are Family". How much of a slap in the face is this to all same-sex parents out there. Instead of celebrating our first Pride as a family we will be marching and protesting for our rights again.

I wish I could tell Leeane that after the passing of this legislation, her family will be fully recognised, but unfortunately they will not because they had a home insemination. This is not a situation of a known donor; the donor is traceable and attended a clinic outside the jurisdiction, so unfortunately they will not be covered by this legislation.

The point has been made that those who availed of surrogacy, which in the vast majority of cases is men, are not covered.

They are left in the same legal limbo for the moment, until the other legislation is brought forward. The other key issues relate to clinics outside the State, which are not being covered in some circumstances, and to retrospective recognition of the myriad circumstances in which same-sex parents find themselves because of the difficult legal situation they have been in. Provision needs to be made for proper backdating of recognition so that birth certificates can be recorded correctly. This has implications for children. I see this primarily as an issue of children's rights. If a parent dies, for example, serious legal issues and complications can arise in respect of guardianship, inheritance and so on. This is a matter of discrimination. For that reason, we will press our amendment when the Bill is debated in detail on Committee and Report Stages. We are seeking to commit the Government to come back and report on this matter six months after the commencement of this Act. We want to make sure the Government cannot avoid dealing with these issues. We believe it should be forced to come back and set out what it intends to do with regard to issues like surrogacy, insemination outside the State, including home insemination, and the retrospective issuing of birth certificates. It is appropriate for the Dáil to make such a demand of the Government.

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