Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On 15 July 2015, the Irish Government passed the Gender Recognition Act, providing the process to enable transgender people to achieve full legal recognition of their preferred gender, and to allow for the acquisition of a new birth certificate to reflect this change. The Gender Recognition Act allows all individuals under the age of 18 to self declare their own gender identity. Young people aged 16 and 17 can also apply to be legally recognised through the process.

In 2017, the European Commissioner for human rights stressed the obligation on states to adopt a system to recognise preferred gender for transgender people. Ireland is the last country in the European Union to allow legal recognition of transgender. This is despite a High Court ruling in 2007 that found the State to be in breach of its positive obligations under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in failing to recognise Dr. Foy in her female gender and provide her with a new birth certificate. This was the first declaration of incompatibility to be made under the European Convention on Human Rights Act. The High Court declaration of incompatibility meant Ireland needed to introduce legislation.

Trans people are among the most vulnerable members of Irish society and experience high levels of stigmatisation and marginalisation. Research shows regular harassment, violence and systematic discrimination are commonplace. The lack of State recognition in other areas of trans identity is a major contributing factor to the marginalisation of trans people and is an urgent health and human rights issue.

Legal gender recognition provides a process for individuals to change their gender marker on their birth certificate and be legally recognised by the State in their true gender. A birth certificate is a fundamental identity document and is often requested for official purposes, such as assessing social welfare, obtaining a personal public service number to work and, in certain cases, when getting married. People may be recognised as being of one gender in certain documents and being of another gender on their birth certificate. This puts the individuals at risk of being outed when they apply for a job or a new passport or on entry to education. It has also led to the denial of services and restrictions on the ability of individuals to travel domestically and internationally. Forced outing may result in harassment, discrimination and even violence.

Despite progress, trans young people fail to be meaningfully included and protected by the Act. I was on the social protection committee as a Deputy from 2011 to 2016. I had my reservations about what was going on with regard to the age limit. Trans young people aged 16 and 17 years must go through a much more complicated and arduous process than people over the age of 18 because they are required to obtain parental consent, two medical opinions and a court order, which can be a lengthy and most prohibitive process. For trans people under the age of 16 years it is even worse. There are no pathways whatsoever to legal recognition, even with parental consent. This causes a number of practical day-to-day difficulties for young people, such as travelling with their passports, opening a bank account or attending school in their true gender. In the meantime, there is a review so we will let the review take place. In 2015 we took a step forward, now let us finish the job.