Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I second the amendment proposed by Senator Norris on behalf of Senator Boyhan. An opinion piece in yesterday's thejournal.ie,written by a law lecturer in NUI Galway, Dr. Brian Tobin, highlighted the fact we still do not have crucial parental rights for same-sex married couples. The article showed how parental rights conferred by the passing of civil marriage equality and the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 have yet to be realised. I have spoken before about how the referendum conferred a variety of civil rights by equalising marriage, including guardianship, kinship, succession and shared parental rights. Same-sex adoptive parents or parents who conceive by assisted reproduction have yet to be granted equal parental status, meaning that one parent is not seen as a legal parent. For example, a non-legal parent does not have kinship rights such that he or she cannot make emergency medical decisions on behalf of the child, cannot remove the child from school in emergency circumstances and has no legal entitlement to custody should the marriage break down. Also, the child has no entitlement to the non-legal parent's estate should he or she die without having made a will. Same-sex couples who wish to conceive by assisted reproduction or to adopt have yet to be catered for. This matter could be solved by three acts of Government. First, the commencement of sections 20 and 23 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015. I call on the Minister to come before the House to explain the delay and outline the expected timeline for the commencement of the Act as it was signed into law over two years ago.

Second, I call on the Government to return the Adoption (Amendment) Bill 2016 to the House for Report and Final Stages in order that the legislation can be enacted without delay thus guaranteeing the rights of same-sex couples who wish to adopt.