Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted that the Government is committed achieving its vision of a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland, where people are supported to flourish and live inclusive, healthy and fulfilling lives, whatever their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. There are many issues that prevent LGBTQI+ people from achieving their full potential in Irish society, which of a structural nature and require a whole-of-government approach to devising appropriate solutions.

I welcome the National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2022, which contains a number of actions by An Garda Síochána to deepen awareness among its front-line officers to better the LGBTQI+ needs, which involves victims of hate crimes and the needs of the community in general. That is so important. It is expected that the Department of Justice will publish the hate crime Bill in the coming months. The Bill will create new aggravated forms of certain existing criminal offences, where those offences are motivated by prejudice against a protected characteristic. The protected characteristics identified in the general scheme are race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender and disability. It is important to create a republic that is founded on the equality and dignity of every citizen.

Fighting discrimination in all forms is one of Fianna Fáil’s core principles and we have committed to working for a fair and equal society. The year 2018 marked the 25th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland. The decriminalisation was pioneered by the then Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. Fianna Fáil’s civil partnership legislation was followed by the marriage referendum. The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act was a major frontier in the recognition of loving, same-sex relationships and it was the first time in Irish law that gay relationships were given official recognition. It included pension rights, succession rights, maintenance obligations and protection in the event of domestic violence. These were crucial.

Our recent welcome progress continued in March 2021 with the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021, which amends the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 and enables adoptive couples to choose which parent may avail of adoptive leave. The Justice Plan 2022 commits to publishing the hate crime Bill in the summer. A review of the Equality Act is under way, and proposals are expected by the end of year. Again, this is very important.

The Minister mentioned additional funding for events and projects. Funding for some projects has been cut this year. I would ask that there would be an emphasis on funding for projects or when funding is needed, there would be some mechanism to get it.

Much progress has been made in recent years, but there are many issues everyday affecting the LGBTQI+ community. I speak with my very good friend, Deputy Phelan, often. He is a very good friend of mine. Just today I spoke with him and he highlighted many issues in my constituency that are still occurring and should not be happening. In Carlow, we have the Carlow Pride Festival, which is on 10 July. My diary is again totally booked for that. I am looking forward to it. I see the Minister of State is writing that down too. I absolutely welcome him to that too. The Carlow Pride Festival does great work every year. They do great advocacy and just work so hard. However, they are receiving much hate on social media, especially on Twitter. Even just this morning I spoke with them, as I said, and they had been getting inappropriate messages through this channel. This is unacceptable. Recently, a drag queen was doxxed at a Pride event in the south east, where their address was revealed and their workplace was targeted. They received harassing and inappropriate emails. Again, people should not be harassed for being who they are. That is really unacceptable.

There have been recent events of homophobia. Near Carlow town, a Pride flag was found to have been burned in a local village. Again, that is unacceptable. There has also been homophobic abuse occurring at night when people are out socialising. They are telling me that what is happening now in the past few months is worse than it has been. Deputy Phelan told me that he feels that this is happening more regularly. It is just not acceptable.

There was a vigil recently in Carlow. There have been serious issues where members of the public filmed the event and posted it to far-right extreme forums and social media. We always say in here that words and action matter. We have to be so mindful. That cannot be allowed to happen. We have to make sure that there is something, whether it is an educational campaign or we set up a committee specifically to look at how we can do this. We need to work on this. It is unacceptable. We cannot and will not allow this to happen to anyone.

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