A man from another EU country who claims to have a female gender identity has entered a civil partnership with a woman in Ireland.The civil partnership is Ireland's first involving a transgendered person, according to a report in The Irish Times.
The man was fully recognised as a woman in his country of origin, which meant that the Irish authorities were obliged under EU law to recognise him as a woman when he came to Ireland to work.
He is fully recognised as a female in his country and has a birth certificate and identity documents all showing his gender as female.
Following correspondence with Free Legal Aid Centre, the Civil Registration Service recognised the person as female, even though the Government has not yet introduced legislation to recognise transgender persons.
The Government has drafted proposals to recognise transgender persons that do not require applicants to have had a sex change operation.
Under the proposals, a person with male sex organs could be officially recognised as a woman.
Last July Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton pledged to publish legislation this year to provide for recognition of the chosen gender of transgender people.
She announced her plan when she published the report of an interdepartmental group set up in May 2010 to advise the government on the implications of the High Court ruling the failure to provide such recognition contravened the European convention.
The proposed legislation would require applicants to have lived with their acquired gender for at least two years.
If applicants can provide a formal medical diagnosis of their condition they do not have to undergo a sex change operation meaning a person could have male sex organs and be called a woman, or vice versa.
Applicants must also be over 18 and they must not be in a subsisting marriage or civil partnership.
The proposals came after a ruling from the European Court of Human rights (ECtHR) which found that Ireland had breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because it didn't recognise transgender people.
Under the proposed bill, an independent three member gender recognition Panel will be established, which will assess applications.
A legal gender recognition Certificate will be issued along with a new birth certificate.
The bill sets out that a person whose gender has been legally recognised would be entitled to marry a person of the opposite sex, or to enter a civil partnership with a person of the same sex.