Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

As the Minister of State and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know, every time we have health statements, I question their value, particularly given the backlog of legislation we have relating to the right to home care, legislation relating to CHI and much other legislation, but I see real value in this. It has been great to hear the consistent messages across the House about particular parts of our communities that are affected and the need for an intersectional approach, particularly relating to Traveller men, LGBT people and disabled people. That is important and hopefully it is a message the Department will take away, about focusing on those groups in particular.

There is a shocking statistic that Traveller men live 15 years shorter. It should really concern us about the life expectancy rates. In 2008, the life expectancy of a Traveller man was 61, similar to the life expectancy of the general population in the 1940s. It should be a real cause for concern, in particular given the high levels of suicide among Traveller men, as Deputy Quaide mentioned. I am a member of the Oireachtas Traveller committee. Last week, we had IHREC before us. I will read from its opening statement, because it should be setting off alarm bells in every Department. It quotes from the Council of Europe, which states:

We must confront the injustices faced by Roma and travellers, the racism and discrimination that we allow to persist on a massive scale. This is one of Europe’s greatest human rights scandals.

That is coming from the Council of Europe, echoed by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. We need to take really seriously our treatment of Travellers, particularly health outcomes for Travellers.

Similarly, I will touch on the experiences of gay, bi and trans men. Trinity College published a study this year, entitled "Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland", that set out the mental health experiences. Some 27% of people experienced severe or extremely severe levels of depression, 34% experienced severe levels of anxiety, 23% experienced extreme levels of stress, 52% had self-harmed, 64% reported suicidal thoughts and 26% had attempted suicide. There are really concerning levels of poor mental health in that community and it really needs to be a priority. I echo the calls made by others earlier about the importance of trans healthcare. It is lifesaving. We would save people's lives by having better trans healthcare. I support the Minister of State in her efforts to do that. We will always have her back on that. We want to see progress together on that. I would also like to see an expansion of the gay men's health service that currently exists in Dublin. I would like to see those expanded at a regional level across the country. Each region should have a version of that service. It should not just be Dublin.

In the final minute, I would like to touch on the experiences of disabled men. We know from the Disability Federation of Ireland that 43% of disabled people over the age of 15 have reported some level of depression. There are really high levels of depression among people who are disabled. Similarly, of those unable to work because of disability, one in five lives in consistent poverty. We know the real impact that living in poverty has on people's overall health and health outcomes. I hope that, out of today's statements, we get a focus on men from these communities who have much poorer health outcomes. We need to put more resources, focus and energy into reversing some of these trends and changing these stats so that we can have better outcomes for men across Ireland.

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