Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I would like to raise with the Taoiseach one very important and particular aspect of healthcare and that is for trans people. I am sure that he, like me, is concerned about the demonisation and erasure of trans people that is going on worldwide. I am sure the Taoiseach would also agree that trans people have a human right to healthcare. The waiting list is a decade long in this State right now. It has increased by a year. We have the worst trans healthcare in the whole of Europe and it is also getting worse since the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust shutdown. Trans people are being forced to go abroad, go private, or online to access illegal hormones or, rather, the way the they are accessing them is illegal, as well as crowd funding and raising money on Facebook, Instagram and so on. The National Gender Service is the only way to access healthcare for trans people. It asks very invasive questions and does not use an informed consent model which is best practice worldwide. Will the Taoiseach please tell us what he intends to do about the situation facing trans people waiting over ten years for healthcare in this State?

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