Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 5, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:"(3) The Minister shall, not later than 2 years after the date on which the Act is enacted, and again not later than 5 years after that date, carry out a review of the operation of this Act assessing, in particular, its consistency with international best practice in the field of gender recognition and its compliance with national, regional and international equality and human rights standards, and shall make a report to each House of the Oireachtas of his or her findings and conclusions resulting from the review.".

I welcome the Minister of State. The amendment provides that the legislation will be reviewed within two years and again within five years to ensure it is in keeping with international best practice in the field of gender recognition and international human rights and equality standards. The Minister of State said on Second Stage that the Bill would be reviewed relatively soon if the marriage equality referendum was passed and that he would work night and day to table an amendment to reflect that result. I applaud and welcome his commitment to amend the Bill in this way. The amendment relates to the entirety of the legislation but because of the injustices of the past, it needs to maximise the potential of the law to protect the dignity and self-determination of transgender people. There is an ongoing debate as to how progressive the Bill is. The Minister of State has argued that it is, and I accept that this is the case in some respects, but it is not in others. If it adequately protects the right to self-determination and for a person to be recognised as a person before the law, a commitment to review the Bill in this way will demonstrate the Government's intention that our statutes will be human-rights-compliant on an ongoing basis. That is why I have moved the amendment.