Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was also very disappointed by the Minister of State's response. I am also disappointed that we get the impression that there is unlikely to be any movement on the key issues we have identified - those of the age criteria, the medical criteria and the forced divorce requirement - where Members have issues with the Bill. That is unfortunate because on this Stage and on Second Stage voices on all sides of the House said that this Bill does not go far enough. That is not only the view of Opposition Senators like myself but the view of Senators on the Government side. That is such a shame. The Minister of State has said he hears us but we are not getting anything from him in this respect. That is a shame.

I asked the Minister of State to outline why he is not satisfied for somebody under the age of 16 - be that aged ten, 14 or 15 - to use the incredibly onerous process that is set out, where a person under the age of 16 would not only have to be prepared to make a determination on having their preferred gender recognised but would also need parental consent and a court order. He is saying he does not trust the young person. He is also saying that he does not trust the parent or our courts which make sense of decisions in regard to children and their welfare on a daily basis. I am often in situations where there is much more conflict, where the parent is arguing one thing and the court is being asked to take a different point of view. In this case, the parent would be in agreement and the court is being given the opportunity to validate that, to accept the consent of the parent who is the person who is most familiar with the young person apart from the young person themselves. All the Minister of State is saying is that he cannot move on this but that seems to be more down to political unwillingness rather than to any reason as to why we are wrong on this.

As has been pointed out, other countries initially started with such a conservative approach but they are rethinking that. We should not be looking at what other countries did ten or 15 years ago; we should be considering what is best practice in 2015 and best practice in terms of genuinely caring about the best interests of children, and Senator van Turnhout referred to our children's rights referendum. Against the backdrop of all the mistakes we made in the past where we did not listen to or believe children and did not accept they were capable of making decisions based on their own age and maturity and simply dismissed them as being incapable, the point of that referendum was to change that and to say that from here on in as a society we want to make sure that the best interests of children are placed front and centre stage.

The legislation the Minister of State has brought forward means that even where it is manifestly in the best of interests of a young person to be able to get their true gender recognised, where not only they believe but their parents and the courts believe that, he is still not prepared to provide for it. That is incredibly unreasonable and unfair. Unfortunately, I do not get the sense that there will be any movement on this. I have one amendment tabled regarding people aged over 16 and I sense that he is not prepared to move on that. We will push that amendment to a vote today because I do not believe we will get a different answer from the Minister on Report Stage. I will support the amendment regarding the under the age of 16 if it is pushed to a vote today. I would prefer a system for those aged over 16 where they would not need parental consent and a separate system for those aged under 16 where they would need it. We will table a Report Stage amendment to deal with that, namely, that for those aged under 16, the process that applies in the Bill currently for 16 and 17 years old would apply. We will press the amendment today providing that those aged 16 and 17 should be treated as adults.