Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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184. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when she received the review of the Gender Recognition Act 2015; whether it has been presented to Cabinet or to a Cabinet Sub-Committee; when she will make a recommendation to Government on the matter; and the process that is being followed to aid her to do so. [19665/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Section 7 of the Gender Recognition Act 2015 (GRA 2015) required the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to commence a review of the Act within 2 years of its coming into operation, and to report to the Oireachtas within 12 months of the commencement of the review.

A review commenced in November 2017 and the review group report was published in July 2018.

The then Minister presented her report on the review to Cabinet in November 2019. The Minister received Government approval for her report in November 2019.

The report set out the Minister’s response to the recommendations of the Review Group. These responses have formed part of the drafting of the general scheme of a Gender Recognition Amendment Bill and recommendations also form part of the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future and will be progressed in that context.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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185. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she plans to make provision for people who are medically determined to be intersex due to their chromosomes or characteristics to be recognised in law. [19666/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Gender Recognition Act 2015 was commenced in September 2015. The legislation enables a person to apply to my Department for a gender recognition certificate. When a gender recognition certificate is granted to a person, the person is formally recognised in their preferred gender for all purposes by the State. For the purposes of the Act, a person who applies for a gender recognition certificate must be either male or female.

Intersex is an umbrella term for persons that have differences of sex characteristics including such features as chromosomes, genitalia, gonads etc. There should be no need for an intersex person to apply for legal gender recognition from their registered sex to either male or female. This can be addressed, at any age, directly through the civil registration system, with supporting medical evidence.

For such persons, a correction of the facts, based on submission of medical evidence, can be made from male to female or from female to male, as well as from indeterminate to either male or female. This is provided for in legislation under section 63 of the Civil Registration Act 2004.