Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I start by expressing solidarity with our trans siblings. They were there for us during the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment and it would be absolutely wrong for us not to all come together today and express that solidarity. I would have thought at this point in proceedings I would be relatively unshockable but I have been quite shocked at the outpouring of hate against a small group. The trans community has demonstrated extreme fortitude, patience and dignity in the face of an onslaught against it. From the Dáil, I express my solidarity today and every day; we must do it every day and we cannot just be allies when we stand here. It must happen in our thoughts, our actions and everything we do. We must call it out when we hear it, which is really hard, because we have heard transphobic and homophobic statements being passed off as jokes. Every single time it happens, we must remember the people who were there with us, intrinsic and integral to the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment. When they need our solidarity, we must stand up.

I am very proud to have been raised in a household where tolerance and inclusivity was absolutely central to our upbringing, who we were and what we did as a family. We were an anti-apartheid family, a pro-women's rights family and an anti-homophobia family. Both of my parents' children are now grown with children of our own but they would not have tolerated the notion of us being intolerant. We have now moved on and it is not simply about not being intolerant and we must be proactively inclusive. The debate is really good and it is no longer about whether a person is being intolerant or tolerant but whether somebody is being inclusive.

I am the Sinn Féin spokesperson on workers' rights and I will speak a little about the rights of people at work.

In 2007, when I was chair of the SIPTU LGBTQI+ advisory group, we bought a small enough banner and brought it to Pride for the first time. I am so proud, if Deputies will forgive the pun, of how far the trade union movement has come since then, how far my own former union, SIPTU, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have come. Trade unions now have a big presence at Pride, and that is very good. Our workplaces should most definitely be inclusive. As I said then, if someone is not out at work then something has to change in their workplace. Work has to be a place where people can feel free to just be themselves. That should not be a big ask.

This is an important debate for us to have as public representatives. We need to provide leadership and deliver on equality for LGBTQI+ people. In the midst of attempts by bad faith actors to drag the debate backwards, and we know who they are and what they are at in trying to erode any progress that has been made, we have to stand together and say "Not on our watch". We have a role to provide that leadership, to use our platforms to amplify positivity and challenge hate. That is not an easy thing for people to do. We all know what a pile-on looks and feels like but we have to be positive but also vocal. We have to be allies, but we have to be active. That is very often the case. If it was left just up to politicians on our own, we probably would not have the progress we have made.

I want to mark the progress. I also want to focus on the fact that there is a lot more that we can do. Members of the LGBTQI+ community face discrimination at every turn, in school, in college, in work, in accessing services, in the street, on the bus, no matter where it is. We need to be there with them. This discrimination, victimisation and bullying creates stress and fear for members of the LGBTQI+ community. This is very apparent when we look at members of the Travelling community. There are LGBTQI+ people within the Travelling community who must find the stress even more acute. We know the levels of mental ill health within the Travelling community. There is a group within a group. We need to be laser-like in our focus in looking at where leadership is required, what we can do to be positive, how we can help people and how we can use the platforms we have as political leaders to amplify positivity and challenge victimisation, discrimination and what is, I suppose, hate. I will end by saying we need hate crime legislation on the Statute Book that is fit for purpose, not legislation that is 33 year old. We need modern legislation that will protect people.

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