Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am thankful for the opportunity to take part in the debate. I do not think life was simpler before. We had a most intolerant society. The Minister referred to 30 years ago when Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, a very courageous Member and Minister at the time, stood across the Chamber in the Minister's shoes. There was a long history before that as well. Back in 1977, a High Court case was taken by Senator David Norris. The lead-in to that case lasted a number of years. The High Court ruled against Senator Norris. That was followed by a decision of the Supreme Court which held against him. He had to go all the whole way to the European Court of Human Rights. It was another five years before the former Minister, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, introduced the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill in 1993, as referenced by the Minister.

In a previous life, I worked as a psychologist and I always found the whole idea and practice of conversion therapy to be abhorrent. I will come back to that point. We have made a journey in this country and I hope we continue to make that journey forward in a positive manner. We should cherish diversity of all sorts and stop inciting fear and hatred. We must learn from our past. My time is short, so I will not go into the detail of that past. I could go on a lot about the intolerance of previous societies, but I will not do so today.

I thank the Library and Research Service, as always, for its briefing paper. It highlights that Ireland was at the forefront in changing our laws in 2015, which is over eight years ago now. We became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage with the introduction of the Thirty-Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and the Gender Recognition Act, which provided for a gender self-declaration procedure for people and children under 18 years of age. All of that was very welcome. We were to the forefront in relation to that.

I welcome the Minister's remarks on the review being carried out of the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts. Hopefully, it will be published soon. The Acts already prohibit discrimination on a number of grounds. I hope those grounds will be extended to include non-binary and other areas to which they need to be extended.

To return to the Minister's contribution, he told us that legislation related to conversion therapy will be brought before the House as a matter of urgency. I very much welcome that. It is absolutely repugnant to any civilised person that we would have any form of conversion therapy. I look forward to that legislation being passed as quickly as possible. A provision for review was included in the Gender Recognition Act 2015, which was very good. The review was carried out. Provision was also made for the publication of an annual report. The report has pointed out that the 2015 Act did not come in through proactive political action. It is important to recognise, every step of the way, that the various pieces of legislation were wrought out of pain and suffering. The 2015 Act was brought in because of a High Court action that had been taken years before, in which it was held that we were not complying with our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights because we failed to provide for a gender recognition process. That is how the Gender Recognition Act came about. As I understand it, and from the research my office has done, it is remarkable that when the legislation was introduced it was subject to very little adverse comment in the Dáil. That, in itself, was significant and highlighted the changes that were taking place in Irish society.

The review of the Act was carried out and an annual report published. The annual report is interesting, and not alone the annual report for 2021, which was completed last year. It is interesting in terms of numbers. I would invite anyone to look at the numbers. We are talking about a small number of applications that were received between 2015 and 2021. There were 909 applications, of which 882 were granted. That report is worth looking at. I ask the Minister to clarify the recommendations from the review. I understand it set out ten recommendations, including recommendations 10A and 10B. Where are we in relation to those recommendations? Have they all been implemented? If either the Minister or the Minister of State could clarify that for me, I would appreciate it.

Notwithstanding the progress we have made on legislation and rights, we still have a long way to go. Unfortunately, there is still an environment of othering people who are different and treating them in a manner that is discriminatory. That is unacceptable on every level. The figures on the violence and harassment suffered by people from the LGBTQI community are appalling. It is unacceptable. I know the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 is going through the Dáil. I have difficulties with it for a number of reasons that were highlighted by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL. I have lost track of where the Bill is at at the moment, but I am on record as saying that I have difficulties with it in terms of the failure to have a proper definition of hatred, among other things. The one point that stood out for me in the ICCL's contribution was that legislation will not change anything of itself. We need to create a different type of environment and culture, one in which tolerance is uppermost.

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