Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to refer to an article that was published in The Irish Times on 23 April last under the headline "Adoptive benefit to be paid to gay couples under new law" and the subheading "Legal anomaly left male same-sex adoptive parents unable to claim State benefit". It states:

An anomaly in the law that prevented male same-sex couples from receiving adoptive leave and benefit is set to be resolved by legislation that has been approved by the Cabinet.

Ministers last week consented to the change, which will seek to resolve the issue that arose after the referendum approving same-sex marriage was passed in 2015 and has since been raised in the Dáil by Government and Opposition TDs.

Adoptive benefit is paid to parents to support them during a period of adoptive leave. Currently, an employed adopting mother or a single father is entitled to 24 weeks' adoptive leave and the associated benefit.

The Cabinet last week approved the general scheme of the Parental Leave and Benefit Bill 2019, which gives effect to previous announcements on parental leave and will also close the adoptive leave legal loophole if passed through the .

, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, said the proposals are "the final steps needed to enable male same-sex couples to receive adoptive leave and benefit".

"This is further progress towards ensuring equality for all families," he said, adding that he hoped that colleagues on all sides of the Dáil and Seanad would work to implement it.

I do not know. I am happy to work to implement it. How can we be expected to support a Bill that excludes a cohort of people who were promised that they would be included in it? Senator Norris and I will have to go back to the community to tell gay fathers and prospective fathers, with whom we communicated prior to this debate, that they have to wait yet again because another aspect of this matter has been deemed to be a legislative priority. The Bill itself is fine. Obviously, it is a good Bill. However, I do not like being put in a position in which I have to support legislation which glaringly excludes gay men. We see this time and again. The bloody Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 has left us with a mess. It seems to me that LGBT parents, in particular, are left behind. That can sometimes be said of the LGBT community as a whole. The 2015 Act, for which the Department of Justice and Equality is ultimately responsible, will not be fully commenced until five years after it was enacted and five years after we passed the referendum on civil marriage equality. I do not know. I would like to hear more about why some elements of this Bill, as announced in April, have been excluded from it now.