Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

More than half of women in Irish society experience sexual violence in the course of their lifetime. That is a shocking statistic which speaks to an epidemic of sexual violence in Irish society. Education is a key tool in combating the misogyny and toxic masculinity which gives rise to so much of this violence. A recent poll in Australia found that 28% of teenage boys there look up to the viral misogynist Andrew Tate. There are no comparative figures for Ireland, but I think it would surprise few if the numbers here were broadly similar. To get a taste of Tate's ugly messaging, consider the following: "You can’t be responsible for something that doesn’t listen to you. You can’t be responsible for a dog if it doesn’t obey you ... or a woman that doesn’t obey you". This man is under house arrest in Romania for sexual assault and human trafficking, but he has nearly 7 million followers on Twitter. In fact, it is reckoned that Elon Musk's company could make £10 million per year from advertising through traffic generated by Tate. It would seem that misogyny is big business for some.

This ideology needs to be countered effectively by relationship and sexuality education in our schools. Sex education in our schools needs to be fully inclusive of LGBTQ+ students. When I say fully inclusive, I mean not just the LGBQ+, but the "T" as well. The Catholic Primary School Management Association wants to counter education about trans people in our primary schools. One may ask what this has to do with sexual violence, but the connection is clear; if one devalues the identity of some human beings, one is creating a situation where some people are less-than. When people are less-than, it is easier to discriminate against them, treat them unfairly and enact violence against them.

The State must not make concessions to those who want the education system to devalue the existence of trans people, including trans children. It is not acceptable that the final curriculum specification changed the draft specification, which had referred to gender ID being experienced along a spectrum.

That is a concession that was made by the State, and it was wrong. This concession and any other concessions to the anti-trans lobby will be vigorously opposed from the People Before Profit-Solidarity benches and, I suspect, by many people in society, especially among the young.

See this speech in context