Report of the Joint Committee on Health: Motion
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Pádraig Rice (SD), Cork South-Central

There is a low level of legislative output and it is frustrating that we have not seen this Bill passed, and other areas. Law reform is needed in lots of other areas. We were talking yesterday about vapes and other areas. There is a need for law reform and we would like to see some of that progressed, including this Bill. As I said, it is crucially important. As Deputy Sherlock said, there is a diversity of families who are affected but there is an area of work already done around LGBT families. We passed the marriage equality referendum over ten years ago. When people went to the polls that day they were voting to provide equality for families, for families to be treated equally, and for full recognition of their families. People around the country are surprised when they meet same-sex couples who have children to see how the law has not solved the issue and that it has not provided them with the family rights other people enjoy. A decade on from marriage equality it is really frustrating that the work has not been done in these Houses and Government Departments to iron out the detail of the law to provide pathways to parentage for same sex couples. Also, as was said, there are other families who have done surrogacy abroad and there are families created in lots of ways in which both parents are not recognised and they have been waiting far too long for this to be resolved. I hope we will not be back here next Christmas still talking about this. I hope next year will be the year we get this resolved and sorted.
We as a committee have engaged constructively on this and will continue to do so. We will make time available at the committee. I would be happy to hold additional sittings if they are needed to progress this legislation and get this sorted once and for all. It is really important we do this, in particular for the children. The recommendations laid out in the report, if accepted, would solve many of the issues and address many of the concerns people have been raising over decades. I welcome that the recommendations have been considered seriously by the Department. As I said in my opening speech, I would like a letter from the Department or the Minister giving the Department’s position on each of the recommendations and as soon as possible for them to give us a clear timeline on the legislation, when it will be published, when it is intended for it to be taken through the Houses and ultimately commenced. That is the key because sometimes we pass laws and never commence them, as we are seeing with the 2024 Act and the section we referenced.
I might be the final speaker before Christmas so I join others in wishing everyone who works in the Houses of Oireachtas a very happy Christmas, as well as all the Members and staff. I thank everybody for all the support over the past year and all they work they have done. I hope people get a good break over Christmas.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18