A constituent of mine, Patricia, recently applied for a passport for her four-year old daughter, which is a common undertaking for a parent. What should have been a routine task has been anything but that. Patricia and her wife went to court to be recognised as their daughter's legal parents. They waited for parental recognition of same-sex couples by the Oireachtas and they waited for section 21 to be signed into law. To be then told that she cannot apply for a passport because she is not the birth parent adds insult to injury with a trowel. This is not good enough. For how much longer will children such as Patricia's daughter be discriminated against because of the gender of their parents?

This issue is not acceptable but it will need change. That is being pursued on a number of fronts, not just in the context of the case the Deputy has identified but it has wider implications for other cases as well and that has to be corrected.

When?