John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival is being held over two weeks from 5 May and one of the plays is called "Eirebrushed". It was written by Mr. Brian Merriman of the Equality Authority and runs from 5 to 10 May, which means that Members have one more day to get to see it, if they have not seen it already. I went to see it on Monday night. It examines four heroes of the 1916 Rising. They return to a modern Ireland to see if modern society has achieved what our founding fathers and mothers set out to achieve. One of the people featured is Elizabeth O'Farrell, about whom I knew nothing, apart from every day driving by the park named after her, and the penny only dropped when I heard her story last Monday night. She was the nurse who risked her life to issue the surrender to the British outside the General Post Office, but she has been airbrushed out of many of the photographs depicting that act. That reminds me in some way of the issue we are debating. At the time we were oppressed by the British. It is safe to say, without offending anybody, that when we gained our independence, we allowed another group to oppress us, but the people who oppress us the most these days are ourselves as a society.

The play is about minority groups and three of the characters are confirmed as being gay or lesbian. The sexual orientation of the fourth is questionable, but through their writings, it is suggested they are possibly gay. I will leave it up to Members to identify the particular 1916 hero in question. My point is that they were four people from minority groups, two of whom were women and did not have a voice and were airbrushed out of society. Thankfully, they now have a voice. They were part of a minority in another way in that they were lesbian, and because they were not recognised at the time, they were able to move under the radar and continue to live their lives as lesbians in relationships with their partners. Elizabeth O'Farrell lived until 1957 with her partner in Bray.

The play tells a lovely story, but it is about minority groups. I know only too well what it is like to be part of a minority group and it is tiresome to have to continually fight for something when one is in a minority group because in most cases we are asking the majority to make amendments. I do not know what it is like for transgender people, but I do know what it is like to be in a minority from the point of view of being gay, and it is very tiring. We ask people who do not know first-hand what it is like to be someone like me to bring forward the best possible legislation to allow me to be included in society as a full citizen. This can be frustrating and I empathise with some of the groups represented in the Visitors' Gallery - I saw some members of TENI when I was in the Chair earlier. I understand it is difficult to ask people to try to understand one's position and the Minister has been progressive on the issue. People may pick at the legislation being brought forward, but we are in a much better space in that regard, although it is not perfect. There is room for improvement and the Minister has mentioned some of the improvements she intends to make. If nothing else, the legislation being brought forward, particularly as a result of the report from the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection, is a working document that will make profound changes for the better for those who are not recognised and have been airbrushed out of our society. Essentially, they do not exist in terms of our laws, but they are now being brought out of the shadows. That is a very positive move and has to be recognised as such.

I am delighted to be a member of a party that believes in making these changes. I will continue to push for such changes because, like no other party, the Labour Party is the one that progresses the issues of individuals in society. I stand over this. We will always lead in that respect. I understand we might not have this perfect, but voices like mine will always be a thorn in the sides of some. Those of us who advocate for minority groups will continue to demand that all citizens be brought into the light to allow them to play a full role in society.

I will not repeat the points made by previous speakers which were similar, but I have issues with some aspects of the report. There are areas in which changes could be made, but I become frustrated, possibly because I have been a Deputy for only three years - I may understand in time - when I hear something cannot be done legally or when we compare our progressive legislation to that in another country. I thought about this while driving home recently in the context of other items of legislation and it applies to this legislation also. It might be time for Ireland to be the country to bring forward the legislation to which other countries will look, rather than looking at what is the best legislation in other countries. Our legislation should supersede it, particularly in dealing with social issues, on which we have been progressive in the past three years. The Gender Recognition Bill is one such legislative measure. I become very frustrated when I hear people say there are different legals points of view. I understand this. I do not profess to be a legal person, but I know what it is like to be an advocate for members of minority groups and such a response is not good enough in addressing the problem. We must examine ways of making legislation work to bring people who have been left out back into society. We must challenge ourselves in that regard. Deputy Willie O'Dea made a similar point. I am sure the Parliamentary Counsel can examine this in a way that will make it possible to make some of the amendments recommended in the report. What are the people in question to do? They are a very small group in society who have a weak voice, but they are paying a hefty price because of a lack of understanding of how far legislation can go to improve the quality of life of some individuals.

The report is exceptionally positive, but it will not be a magic wand. We have to be honest with people, including those in the Visitors' Gallery. We should try to tweak those areas that can be changed and challenge ourselves when told something cannot be done in legislation. For example, we have to challenge ourselves on the relationships issue. I do not accept that we should decide that the only requirement on a person wishing to undergo gender transition is that he or she must be single, and that it cannot be applied to persons who are married.

We need to find a solution to this. The experts in the legalities of this world should be striving for it.

During the Constitutional Convention, a lecturer from UCD spoke about an ancient philosopher, whose name I cannot recall, who developed the concept of human flourishing - namely, that every individual is caused to flourish to be exactly who they are. If I am prevented from flourishing as an individual, other people in society cannot flourish to their totality and, as such, society does not benefit. Unless we allow every person to reach his or her capacity in terms of who they are, society ultimately loses out. It is not only the people affected by this issue who lose out, although they lose out most when we cannot make advances, but society as a whole. It is only by bringing every citizen who has been airbrushed out of our society back into society and developing legal frameworks to make this happen that we can have a better society, one of which we can be proud and with which the Elizabeth O'Farrells, Pádraig Pearses and Roger Casements and so on will be happy in terms of what the Proclamation set out to do in the first instance.

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