Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank Senators Warfield and Gavan for proposing and seconding this Bill and for taking the time and effort to draft this Bill. As someone who has brought in Private Members' Bills, I know that much time and effort goes into its drafting and ensuring that it is a Bill that can proceed through the House, and I thank them for their efforts in this regard.

We have changed quite a lot as a country in recent years. As Senator Ardagh noted of the marriage equality referendum, we were the first country in the world to vote to bring about the change in marriage equality. There was also further legislation in this area of giving equal rights to people. During the marriage equality referendum, there was a view that in rural areas people would be very conservative and would not want change but if one looks at the results, it is clear that right across the country, people wanted that change. Similarly, it is important that we bring about legal change in this area. It is important that there is proper effective legislation to prohibit conversion therapies and that it can be implemented.

This is not a criticism of the Bill, but an effort to be constructive, I wonder about someone who is under 18 years, particularly where a parent decides to take a person under 18 years out of the country for conversion therapy. Does the Bill cater for that? Can we deal with it in the Bill? It is not clear if that is the case as it is currently drafted. The Minister of State might comment on this. Where the parent has certain rights, is the Bill sufficient to preventing a parent from taking someone aged under 18 years out of the country to go through therapy? We need to look at this issue. It arose in relation to legislation on female genital mutilation, FGM, where children being taken out of the country is a significant issue. In that case the question of proofs arises in trying to introduce proper regulation and to ensure there is a penalty. The purpose of the Bill is to ensure that it does not happen, and we must ensure that there is adequate cover in the legislation to deal with that.

Overall, the Bill is a welcome development. The Minister of State has clearly set out the Government's position and the legal issues which require clarification. At present, I have one Private Members' Bill before the Houses. Speaking with officials in the Department of Justice and Equality recently, I was told they had 67 amendments to the Bill. The Senators who brought forward this legislation should not take it as a criticism if the Department comes back with amendments. The idea is to ensure that the legislation can be put in place, that the law is implementable, enforceable and that it is strictly adhered to in this issue. It is important legislation. People should have the freedom to express their sexuality in a proper manner, without restriction, and there should be no process which could interfere with that and the draft Bill before us tries to do that.

I thank the Senators. This Bill has my full support and I would have no difficulty in giving my help or assistance to the Senators who are bringing this legislation forward.