Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

I am proud to stand here today as a Labour Party TD to close this motion. I commend Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, on his very thoughtful and heartfelt contribution. It really reminded me why we are here and why we do what we do, especially compared to some of the contributions we heard before it. However, I am disappointed that this debate is coming to a conclusion at 11.45 a.m. I am disappointed by the nature of some of what Deputy Cullinane said. I am disappointed that Sinn Féin has not used its full speaking slots. I am incredibly disappointed by Aontú's contribution. I am "driven by ideology" in relation to this: my ideology is compassion, inclusion and recognising people rather than pretending they do not exist. We know we have a huge problem with male violence against women in this country. The fact of the matter is that if a woman is going to be attacked or murdered, statistically the chances are that the perpetrator will be her husband or partner. That is the person who is going to do it. It is not a trans woman. Statistically, it is not a trans woman. There has been an attempt to slur and blur the debate in this respect.

I am proud to stand here because the Labour Party has always been steadfast in its commitment to the LGBTQI+ community. I welcome all our friends here to the Gallery. I am very glad we have Mammies for Trans Rights here with us this morning. That is really important. I genuinely believe that mammies know best. Mothers know their children. They know their children's needs. They know what their children want. They know what is best for their children. All of these mothers are up in the Visitors Gallery because they want a compassionate, person-centred, informed-consent model of healthcare for their children. They want their children to be recognised. They want their children to be treated with compassion, dignity and humanity. They do not want their children to be othered. I do not like when people come into this House or other public forums and seek to other people. Regardless of whether somebody identifies as a cisgender male or a cisgender woman, or whether somebody is trans, we are all people and we have to treat people with humanity, dignity and compassion.

I am proud to stand here as a gay man, but I am very conscious of my own privilege. I am lucky to live in a society and a country that is relatively pluralist, relatively welcoming and relatively decent, albeit we obviously need to make progress. However, it is not like that for trans people. We have the worst trans healthcare in Europe and that should absolutely shame us.

The last thing I want to say here today is that the legislation around conversion therapy is on the Government's autumn priority legislation programme. We have been waiting too long.

We need to get that over the line and we need to see movement on that. I urge the Minister to take that back to her colleagues in government.

See this speech in context