Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs has been challenged in the High Court of Ireland after 'unreasonable delays' in processing a passport application made on behalf of a child born via surrogacy abroad.
The child was born in 2015 to a same-sex couple of whom one parent is an Irish citizen, and the other is the genetic parent of the child. The family resides outside Ireland, and have obtained a court order in their country of residence confirming them as the child's legal parents, which also 'extinguished the parental rights of the surrogate'.
The Irish parent submitted a passport application for their son in 2017, the outcome of which has not been determined. The boy's parents have requested a judicial review to compel the minister to make a decision.
According to the Irish Examiner, papers filed in the case allege that delays constitute 'a failure by the minister to carry out his statutory function', and that the minister 'has failed to recognise the parent-child relationship between the boy and his Irish citizen parent', and the fact that the boy is legally recognised as the son of the couple in their country of residence.
The application was heard by Mr Justice Charles Meenan who allowed the application to go ahead. It will now be brought before the High Court in October.
Article: 14 September 2020 www.bionews.org.uk Appeared in BioNews 1063