Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I commend my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, for proposing this important motion. I welcome our visitors to the Gallery. I speak proudly in support of this motion as the leader of a party with a long track record of standing in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. The Labour Party has a proud record in this area. Indeed, it was one of the first parties to establish a stand-alone section. I want to pay tribute to all our great activists in Labour LGBTQ+ including people like Eddie McGuinness, Bernie Linnane, Aoife Corish, Karl Hayden and so many more who have done so much to progress LGBTQ+ rights. I am also proud that the Labour Party has never wavered or sought to punch down on trans people because we stand in solidarity with our trans and non-binary friends, neighbours, family members and colleagues. Today, as we pay tribute to their bravery, we should recall the path that brought us here. The years from 2015 to 2018 were a period of extraordinary progress in Ireland, with the Labour Party to the fore in bringing about change. Campaigners for trans rights, marriage equality, civil partnership and the repeal of the eighth amendment stood shoulder to shoulder because in Ireland we have resisted attempts from the right seeking to divide us. I speak as a proud feminist. Feminists and LGBTQ+ activists in Ireland know the real enemy. We recognise that there are conservative forces across Ireland who seek to turn back the clock on LGBTQ+ rights and women's rights and we resist those attempts.

Last month marked ten years since the passage of the Gender Recognition Act. I pay tribute to the unyielding campaigning of Free Legal Advice Centres, FLAC, the Transgender Equality Network Ireland, TENI, and so many others and the courage of people like Dr. Lydia Foy, who we recently honoured at our Labour Party conference. For the Labour Party's part, the former Minister, Joan Burton, and the former Minister of State, Kevin Humphreys, were key to passing the law because they saw the need for change. Ten years on, much unfinished work remains, particularly when it comes to the provision of gender-affirming healthcare. When it comes to trans rights in healthcare, many of the 2018 review's recommendations still sit on a shelf, including recognition for non-binary people, the need for care at home, and protections for the bodily autonomy of intersex people. I am sure the Minister is aware that intersex people remain invisible in Irish law, unlike in Iceland, as Deputy Sherlock has said, where strong protections exist.

In 2022 Ireland was found to have the worst trans healthcare in Europe. Many of these failings reflect wider systemic issues in the health service which will be very familiar to the Minister and to all of us here including overcentralisation, lengthening waiting lists and regional inequalities but the consequences for trans people can be particularly severe. Trans people have the longest known wait times in Europe. People can be left waiting for three, five and sometimes even ten years and one in five trans adults seeking a referral from their GP never receives one. When access is granted, the process can be invasive, pathologising and contrary to a human-rights based, informed-consent model. These are not abstract policy questions as our listeners in the Gallery know. These are personal and human rights issues and they affect real people. Plenty of people of every gender identity need access to HRT and primary care that is local and integrated. In that sense, this motion is not just about strengthening our health system for trans people but about strengthening it for everyone.

Finally, I wish to speak in support of the motion's call to ban so-called conversion therapy. This is a vitally important aspect of the motion. I co-sponsored legislation with former Senator Fintan Warfield some years ago on this issue and did so proudly. We need movement on it. The notion that so-called therapy could end up doing damage to a client must be tackled. I appreciate that complexities mire the issue of designating the profession of counsellor but the Minister must act with urgency on this. It is nearly a decade since a Labour Party Minister, Brendan Howlin, introduced legislation to regulate rogue crisis pregnancy agencies. We have seen quite a number of Governments falling since the commitment was made to give statutory protection to the title of counsellor. We need to see movement on this and the legislation must have a cross-Border element. The cross-Border nature of these deeply harmful and damaging practices needs urgent attention.

We have made great strides in the past. Between 2015 and 2018 we saw significant, progressive changes for women and for the LGBTQ+ community. On this, the tenth anniversary of the Gender Recognition Act, we need to see more done to address the serious shortcomings in the model of care for trans people.

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