Two women who got married in Ireland and had a child through IVF in the UK have been given leave to challenge the State’s refusal to grant an Irish passport to their daughter.

The two women are an Irish national and the woman she married, who is from New Zealand. The couple, who remain anonymous by court order, got married in Ireland in 2018 and then had a child in 2024 through an IVF procedure they received in the UK. The family now lives outside of Ireland in an EU country.

The woman from New Zealand was the one who gave birth to the child. While the mother from New Zealand was granted a passport for the child from her home country, the Irish State refused the infant a passport here in November 2025.

As reported by RTÉ, at the High Court on Monday, March 9, the two women were given leave to challenge the Irish State’s refusal. Judge Mary Rose Gearty granted permission to barrister William McLoughlin, who represents the two women, to challenge the refusal.

The women are taking a case against the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who made the refusal to grant the Irish passport. According to the documents submitted by the couple, the Irish woman submits that she is a citizen of Ireland and in a lawful same-sex marriage conducted in the country.

She said that, while she is the legal parent of the child and is named in the daughter’s UK birth certificate, her “parentage, parental rights and family status are not recognised” by the Irish State. The couple is seeking a declaration from the court that she is the legal parent of the child under Irish law, claiming that the refusal is unconstitutional.

They also submitted that, while the child was able to obtain New Zealand citizenship, the Irish respondents determined that “the applicant is not a ‘mother’, ‘father’ or ‘parent’” under the 1956 Act, “despite the applicant being named on the birth certificate as a ‘legal parent’ to the child”. The couple is also seeking a declaration that the 1956 Act is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

According to the submitted documents, in their refusal, the Passport Office stated that the parents of a child born outside of the State “are broadly considered to be the child’s birth mother, married to the man, who is the child’s genetic father, and a presumption of paternity applies in respect of her husband, or the child’s adoptive parents”.

The response further stated that “citizenship by descent is provided for in the Act, which provides that a person is an Irish citizen from birth, if at the time of his or her birth either parent was an Irish citizen, or would, if alive, have been an Irish citizen”.

“Applying the law… and having carefully considered all of the information, there would be no apparent basis to conclude that [the child] is entitled to Irish citizenship at the time of the child’s birth.”

After reviewing the documents, Judge Gearty granted leave for judicial review on the matter and adjourned it to May 12.