Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of equal parental rights and the family rights of children with same-sex parents. Three years ago, many Members of both Houses stood in celebration with the LGBT community as the announcement came from the RDS that the civil marriage equality referendum had passed. The legislation that gave effect to marriage equality, the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015, affords equal rights to same-sex couples who wish to have children and form families. It has been three years since that historic legislation was passed by the Oireachtas. However, Parts 2 and 3, which confer equal family rights for those who can only conceive through assisted human reproduction, have to be yet commenced by the Minister for Health. While we claim that in this State all family formations hold equal esteem before the law, there are many stark realities that face these families, aside from simply not having equal status to others. There are realities such as preventing a family from applying for an Irish passport and citizenship for their child, preventing the child from accessing his or her parents' estate if they pass away intestate and preventing a parent from making emergency health decisions on behalf of a child in the case where the other parent may be out of the country.

I, like the Leader and many others, have been seeking certainty in respect of this matter for some time. I am saddened that I and many others have been fobbed off by the Department of Health with deadlines which have been consistently missed and responses which have not been transparent or reasonable. In that context, I wish to propose an amendment to the Order of Business to call on the Minister for Health to come to the House to explain this delay, which has gone on for too long without any rationale. I do not do this lightly. However, given that I have attempted to get clear answers through different Oireachtas avenues on this issue, the Department seems unwilling to give them to me.