Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is an appeal to the Minister from a broad range of speakers tonight. We accept this is a positive step forward but the piecemeal approach undermines the positive elements of this legislation. I remember being in the House 15 years ago for the apology to people who had been in institutions and so forth. At the time there was a list of certain institutions and over the years, other institutions have been added to it. However, we left out many people and in doing that we compounded the hurt and hurt many more. Last weekend I was in Mount Jerome. Four new Bethany homes have been found and there is a new memorial there. What we are doing in this situation is leaving people behind and that is not the idea behind this process.

People passed a referendum in the expectation that we, as legislators, would come up with legislation for those family units. Ireland is far different now from ten or 16 years ago. There are different family formations and as an inclusive Ireland, we must represent that. That is our job. We are appealing to the Minister to consider the proposal being brought forward. It is quite reasonable. We are asking that after passing the Bill, the Minister will review this. I do not understand what the problem is with that. It commits the Government to conducting a review that will examine the status of parental rights of same-sex couples in terms of surrogacy and of those who sought fertility treatment outside the State. It is something we should be able to examine. It is a reasonable request and it should be part of this process in which we are engaged.

This is about families and individuals. We all know the difficulties people are experiencing trying to access birth certificates, passports and so on and the difficulties on the family unit when one parent gets sick. I appeal to the Minister to reflect on the vote of people across the country in favour of same-sex marriage and the expectation on us to reflect that in legislation. It is a reasonable request. I appeal to him to re-examine the legislation.

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