Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the vote in favour of marriage equality in Australia. Some 63% of voters supported the call for equal marriage rights for LGBTQI citizens. There remains something problematic about putting the issue of human rights to a referendum, especially in Australia where the parliament had the ability to legislate for them. I hope the format adopted in Ireland of holding a referendum on the issue of marriage equality which was a necessity in our case is not one which will be adopted by other governments which just do not have the guts, vision or political will to show leadership on the issue of LGBT rights. While I am delighted and congratulate the LGBT community and people in Australia generally, this conversation has been had around the world and ideally the matter should not be put to a non-binding vote, although I expect there to be marriage equality in Australia before Christmas.

Closer to home, it is two and half years since the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 was signed into law. This historic Act truly embraced the realities and diversity of families. Sections 2 and 3 of the Act which provide for parentage through donor assisted human reproduction have yet to be commenced by the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris. Many families are running into difficulties with birth certificate and passport registration. This leaves parents vulnerable in terms of kinship rights, emergency decision-making powers and succession rights. The Minister has said it is intended to commence the sections later this year. Will he address this House and provide an update on whether the relevant sections will be commenced in 2017? Same-sex families have waited long enough to be recognised by the State.