#48 | Children and Family Relationships Amendment Bill
On this episode of Sparking Change, Dil discusses the passage of the Children and Family Relationships Amendment Bill, as well as further improvements that need to be made for the rights of LGBTQI+ families with Senator Fintan Warfield, Paula Fagan, CEO of LGBT Ireland, as well as Dil’s wife, founder and clinical director of Insight Matters, Anne Marie Toole.
Yesterday, the Children and Family Relationships Amendment Bill 2018 was passed in the Seanad after it passed through the Dáil last week. This will allow same sex female couples, who have a donor conceived child, to apply for a retrospective declaration of parentage. However, LGBT Ireland explains there is still work to be done: the commencement of Part 9 of the Act is necessary to enable both parents to register on their child’s birth certificate and that responsibility lies with the Department of Social protection. LGBT Ireland is committed to working with Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, to have this part commenced after the Dáil’s summer recess.
As well as this, the Children and Family Relationships Act does not include surrogacy. Provisions relating to the regulation of surrogacy are included in Part 6 of the General Scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017.
There are other parenting pathways that need to be addressed so that all families can be legislated for by the state, so that no children are left without legal protections and recognition of their families.
We also hear Minister for Health, Simon Harris speak in the Seanad about the Bill and the need to change our constitution’s outdated definition of ‘family’, followed by the passage of the Bill itself.
