The provision is to be included in a bill that will be make Ireland the first country in Europe to introduce legislation formalising its passport system. Section nine of the bill will outline the conditions "under which people, who reorient their gender, may have the gender changed on an Irish passport". This can happen once "appropriate medical testimony" is supplied "certifying that gender reorientation has taken place".

Currently, people who have reoriented their gender are granted new passports, but observers say the bill "removes any potential ambiguity" and enshrines their civil right to a new passport in legislation.

Ireland will join a small group of countries that have formalised, in law, the rules and regulations relating to passports. Up to now, the issuing of passports has effectively been an executive function of government. But the new legislation . . . introduced by foreign affairs minister Dermot Ahern . . . gives legal standing to an Irish citizen's right to a passport. The legislation will also make it a serious criminal offence to have or to use a false Irish passport while abroad.

There will also be stronger penalties for other offences, such as attempting to alter a passport or making a false application, with potentially lengthy jail terms and fines running into tens of thousands of euro.

The driving force behind the new legislation is the introduction of biometric passports from October next, when new US rules regulations are introduced. From then, new passports will have to contain biometric data for a person to enter the US on a visa waiver programme. However, machine-readable passports issued before this date will be acceptable.