Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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563. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if consideration will be given to revising the current procedure in which transgender persons who wish to have their names changed and recognised in organisations, for example, the National Driver Licence Service, are require to enrol their deed poll to do so, thus allowing for this information to become accessible to the public and subsequently disclosing their gender identity and also potentially putting the transgender person at risk of harassment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12558/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The report of the group established to review the 2015 Gender Recognition Act advised that the process of changing a person’s name after they receive a gender recognition certificate should be made less difficult and suggested that a gender recognition certificate could act as a legal change of name as well as a legal change of gender. The previous Government had developed legislative proposals to address this issue and these have been carried forward to the new Programme for Government.

Work commenced in relation to advancing the legislative process for these measures at the start of 2020 but due to the dissolution of the last Dáil, the election and subsequent government-formation process, the completion of the transfer of functions process, as well as the focus on responding to the public health crisis, this work was paused.

Since then, the ongoing devotion of resources within the Department to the public health crisis and associated matters has meant that it has not yet been possible to further progress this work. However, the matter will be kept under review and the measures remain as part of the Programme for Government. In the meantime, the Department is examining the possibility of administratively removing the requirement for a Deed Poll to have been completed to receive a Public Services Card where a gender recognition certificate has already been issued.