Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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351. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide details on the research commissioned by her Department to examine issues of concern relating to children aged under 16 years of age being able to access a gender recognition certificate and/or self-declare their gender; the person or company contracted to provide this research and the costs incurred; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51119/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s role in relation to gender recognition is to record a person’s preferred gender once the necessary formalities have been complied with.

The Programme for Government – Our Shared Future - contains a commitment to commenceresearchtoexaminearrangementsforgender recognition for children under sixteen. The research is intended to inform consideration of any proposals to change the current arrangements for gender recognition for children under sixteen. The absence of such research was acknowledged as an issue during the Oireachtas debates on the Civil Registration Act in 2015. Any change to the current arrangements will require the approval of Government and the Oireachtas.

While the research was commissioned jointly by my Department and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, that Department undertook the lead in relation to the detailed procurement and contract management arrangements for the research. Accordingly, the question is proper to my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.