Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 32 seeks to amend section 18 to replace a reference to "mother and father" with "a parent". If we were to accept this amendment, it would upset the concept of guardianship as currently applied; therefore, there would be an unintented consequence. We need to be cautious in that regard. I do not propose to accept the amendments based on the principles set out in section 17(1) which states:

Where a gender recognition certificate is issued to a person the person's gender shall from the date of that issue become for all purposes the preferred gender so that if the preferred gender is the male gender the person's sex becomes that of a man, and if it is the female gender the person's sex becomes that of a woman.

The Bill does not provide for a third category.I have had discussions outside the House with different groupings that have taken issue with this - Senator Katherine Zappone has also been involved in civic engagement - but at this stage I am not prepared to accept the amendments. The issue is complicated and there would be knock-on effects within the Bill in that it it would upset the concept of guardianship. We, therefore, need to look at the issue more closely.