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MONDAY THE 22nd of May marked the second anniversary of the Marriage Equality Referendum, a resounding success that brought about a change in the Constitution and opened up civil marriage to same-sex couples.
Although the success of the referendum made Ireland the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage via a popular vote, many provisions of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015, designed to provide same-sex couples with parental rights, are still not in force.
The 2015 Act was signed into law by the President merely six weeks before the referendum, and it is the first piece of legislation designed to regulate parentage where a child is born to a couple via donor-assisted human reproduction.
Following the signing into law of the 2015 Act and the success of the Marriage Equality Referendum shortly thereafter, numerous lesbian couples began to plan for two important things, marriage and children.
Same-sex spouse not recognised as legal parent
The successful referendum result meant legislation allowing for same-sex marriage would follow, which it did in November 2015, so many lesbian couples not only began to plan their weddings. They also commenced the process of conceiving a child via donor insemination in Irish fertility clinics, believing that once the child was born they would both be able to be legally recognised as its married parents by virtue of the provisions in the 2015 Act.
However, sections 20 to 23 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 have still not been commenced, meaning that a donor-conceived child’s mother cannot have her same-sex spouse recognised as a legal parent of the child. The Fine Gael/Labour coalition and the current Fine Gael-led minority government have both failed to commence these crucial, family-oriented, child-centred provisions of the 2015 Act.
In May 2016 a Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed that these sections had not been commenced and that this was a matter for the then Minister for Health. The department official believed that the necessary preparatory work was in progress, but it is now over a year later and no identifiable progress appears to have been made to date.
The State has a duty to protect all married families
Lesbian married couples cannot procreate without the assistance of a sperm donor so the commencement of the legislation is essential to enable the spouse who does not give birth to establish her parental rights in respect of the child. Indeed, the State has a duty to protect all married families under Article 41 of the Constitution.
Further, the 2015 Act was supposed to open up joint adoption to same-sex civil partners and cohabiting couples, but this part of the legislation has not been commenced either. However, it appears that these adoption provisions have now been brought forward into section 16 of the Adoption (Amendment) Bill 2016, though that Bill has yet to become law.
Finally, the State has yet to regulate surrogacy, the only means by which a male same-sex married couple can procreate with assistance. In November 2016 the Department of Health confirmed that drafting of a surrogacy Bill was at an advanced stage and was expected to be published by the end of the first quarter of 2017. It has yet to appear and indications from the Department of Health regarding the Bill’s approach to surrogacy are cause for concern.
The policy behind the Bill appears to be based on a complete misunderstanding of the upshot of a 2014 Supreme Court decision on surrogacy. It seems that the Bill will also be incorporating some of the most criticised, outdated and controversial aspects of surrogacy laws in the UK and elsewhere.
Plus, even if it is eventually introduced, such a Bill could face much opposition on its path to fruition given that in 2013 a nationally representative sample survey carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons found that only 52% of those surveyed were in favour of surrogacy.
Marriage equality may be a reality in modern Ireland for almost two years now, but unfortunately many crucial parental rights for same-sex married couples remain on the distant horizon.
Dr Brian Tobin is a lecturer at the School of Law, NUI Galway. He researches in the areas of family law and children’s rights and in 2014 he provided expert opinion to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality on the General Scheme of the Children and Family Relationships Bill. He has published widely in the areas of family and child law and sexuality and the law.
Suited him to use pulse information to attack Mick Wallace . What a hypocritical clown.
Shatter is actually an incredibly stupid human being , doesn’t say much for politicians or his profession. I’ve seen sharper melted crayons .
They talk so much s’ite and tell so many untruths , they don’t even know what they are saying anymore.
I had the opportunity to run Alan shatter down today as he crossed the road (illegally) in front of me. I still don’t know why I slowed down
Dont these gardai know that only the justice minister ,the garda commissioner and their trusted busy bodies are the only ones allowed to abuse their access to our countries intelligence systems???
While some people are correct with their comments the reality is the journal seems to be like a press office for SF, AAA, PBB etc. People with made up names a fake accounts posting negative comments about positive stories. Thank god Ireland isn’t as bad a the left make it out to be.
The Authorities in this country are corrupt at every level I have zero respect for any of them, cover ups, neglect of duty, back handers,cronyism, nepotism the list goes on and on and on.
littleone, they know what they’re saying, they’re banking on people just remembering their latest statement/misdirection. It’s opportunism. Watching an Irish current affairs panel discussion with Irish politicians, they can’t go more than two minutes with contradicting a previous statement on the same discussion. It’s amazing! I’d suggest a drinking game based on this, but it would lead to liver failure/alcohol blood poisoning during just one show. Please don’t try this at home!
He’s not stupid when it comes to charging. He’s the most expensive solicitor in dublin apparently.
Shatter Would know, how else would he have found out that a Garda pointed at Mick Wallace when he was on the phone when driving.
Much more civilised when you can just gossip with the commissioner
I have no doubt that Shatter is correct. No-one is wrong ALL the time. In my experience, people often misuse the tools/information at their disposal. SW/Local authority staff also snoop on people for the purposes of idle curiosity and gossip.
I can vouch for the fact he’s correct as my own were accessed and leaked to a third party so as to intimidate me after I did some digging that made both the gardai, and a contractor that takes seized vehicles from roadside checkpoints when their tax is out uncomfortable. The contractor the cops were handing the vehicles to, wasn;t named on the contract. A totally different contractr was and he was subletting out the work in breach of the original contract. Gardai gave the guy my details and history and he used it to try and threaten me.
The fact that you have a record to be accessed in the first place doesn’t help your credibility.
And what do you know about it, Dave? What do you know about my credibility? “A record” means a record of my information. I don;t have a criminal record. Anything you’d like to add about the cops handing over details of citizens to private businesses? Or is a throwaway comment your best shot at it?
If Pulse is used for what it was intended, recording criminal records and criminal intelligence, then I fail to see how you have any credibility. No business information etc. should be kept on it unless you have come to the attention of the Gardai. If your info is stored on it you have a right to see it and request under FOI.
Nonsense. Pulse records hold recording crime; traffic management; firearms licensing;driver licences;
insurance;, character vetting are all held on the pulse system.
Lock me up and throw away the key Judge Dave, eh?
Pulse Is used for road tax which has nothing to do with criminal activity.
FOI ahahaha in Ireland best of luck with that. If they refuse 25k a day in the high court to challenge it .
I still don’t see how legitimate information like car tax etc. could be used to intimidate someone?
Under EU legislation FOI requests must be replied to within 4 weeks. I can’t see any reason to refuse unless the release of information would breach data protection for a third person and even then they would have to convince a judge.
The details of criminal incidents on pulse also includes the victims info too, so regular law abiding citizens may have their info there with nothing to taint their credibility.
Pulse is used for any and all records of you relating to vehicles ,firearms , criminal activity or suspected criminal activity .
What type of information about me can the PULSE system hold?
The PULSE system contains information about:
recording crime;
traffic management;
progression of criminal cases through the courts, including the outcome;
firearms licensing;
driver licences;
insurance;
character vetting.
Pulse is not just for criminal records; it has car registrations and owner names and addresses for ALL car owners, the vast majority of them law – abiding.
Why do we still have to listen to the dribble that comes from Shitter sorry Shatter he knows all about the miss use of Garda information Could we hope it’s the last we hear of this fool
Hardly surprising. They should’ve known the system was being misused when Guardai started entering in crime descriptions using only emojis.
Who da f*ck even cares
I just updated my Pulse status to In a relationship.
For the majority I would assume the pulse system is used for work related activities only and acessed in a professional manner. Like any organisation the size of the Gardai there will be always a few that maybe test the boundaries. I would also suspect any use of the pulse system inappropriate way would be dealt with .
There should be the SAME restrictions here as there are in the UK for Police Officers accessing private citizen information.
There have been criminal charges brought against UK Police Officers who did this type of thing and the same should apply here!
I heard there are so many people on pulse they cant keep track because most of the people have no record and some are even guards themselves.
I had my shop door interfered with and I got a letter with a pulse number to my home address, I never gave them my home address and I’ve never been in trouble with the law at any level.
The look it up on the electorate register.
That was in response to Dave.
I live 30km away in another area, I’m actually registered to another address as I moved in the past 6 months . Which was changed but not sure if it is updated yet.
Only 2 things in my name at that address is health insurance and car tax.
Come on I don;t think many of us could resist especially if it’s local news!
I do agree with Alan shatter but the irony, it’s a slippery slope the high old moral ground when his gossip on Wallace live on television helped ruin his time as minister. We are all under survalince, look at all the gardai playing GAA . People’s constutionial right is not a priory and never has. But it’s not a bad thing if a rapist or child molester moves into your area would you not want to know. If you are employing someone why not check out their past. It’s when it used for blackmail, tenant issues or False information is circulated. It’s a Garda job to be nosey and without understanding the benefits.
So you reckon that the garda in your local GAA club is putting information on PULSE about all the other members? Talk about paranoia.
“We are all under survalince (sic), look at all the gardai playing GAA” hahaha Lmfao……I’ve heard it all now…
For a politician who I couldn’t believe lasted as long as he did as Minister of Justice, it’s not smart to point fingers at others. Shatter’s personal and professional reputation was in pieces by the time he was forced out.
It’s puke inducing to see Shatter siding with Clare Daly against the treatment she was subjected to by our “finest”.
Why didn’t he come to her defence at the time it happened ? Because he was 100% in cahoots with “disgusting” Callinan in their cover-ups.
But now, come election time, he’s having a Pauline conversion. When you take into consideration how he used the same leak-culture to score a (backfiring) point against Mick Wallace, you have a measure of this HYPOCRITE.
Go away shatter,you are a dangerous man.
The lesson to be learnt here is that you should never trust a cop. The movie Serpico is great at illustrating this point: “We do our own laundry around here Frank”.
Once it wasn’t used by them to know where to buy some hash?
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