Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I call the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Deputy Norma Foley, to make her statement. Under Standing Order 56, she is sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Jerry Buttimer, and Deputy Keira Keogh. They have 25 minutes in total.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is my honour to address the House today on Pride. It is a particular honour to be here this year as we mark what is a significant year in terms of LGBTIQ+ equality.

As many in the House will be aware, the Dublin Pride Festival took place on 28 June. The streets of the capital were awash with vibrant colours, enjoyment and, most importantly, pride. As the summer moves on, there will be many more events taking place across the country to mark Pride. It is significant to see the expansion of Pride festivals across Ireland, especially in rural areas. I welcome their continued growth year on year. However, Pride month is more than just a festival or parade; it is a powerful statement about love, acceptance and resilience. This year marks a milestone anniversary for the LGBTIQ+ community and for wider society. It is ten years since the people of Ireland voted in their millions to say "Yes" to equality and to dignity. It was undoubtedly one of the most significant moments in the history of this State. On that historic day ten years ago, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote. With 62% in favour, the people of Ireland made a clear, proud, and compassionate choice to enshrine in our Constitution the equal right of same-sex couples to marry. It was a moment that changed our laws, but more than that, it changed lives.

The annual marriage statistics from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, show that hundreds of LGBTIQ+ couples are proudly getting married each year, including 688 last year. The success of the marriage equality referendum changed Ireland in so many profound ways. There is so much to celebrate in terms of the path to equality for the LGBTIQ+ community since that remarkable day. However, we must be mindful that equality is not a single destination. It is a continuous journey and one that we must remain committed to with the same spirit that defined that extraordinary day ten years ago. Pride is a moment to look forward, not just back, including: to reflect on the work still to be done; to combat discrimination; and to show the LGBTIQ+ community we stand in solidarity with them. Progress can be achieved when we collaborate and renew our efforts to advance equality for all. As Malala Yousafzai said, "We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back".

The new national LGBTIQ+ inclusion strategy 2024-2028 is a manifestation of the Government’s commitment to meet the challenges the LGBTIQ+ community continue to face. I am pleased to inform the House that I launched the strategy and its accompanying first two-year action plan last month. It was developed following an extensive consultation with the LGBTIQ+ community. One of the key messages that emerged is that it should be focused on making the biggest impact on the key priority areas that mattered most to the LGBTIQ+ community. That means there is a reduced number of actions compared to the previous strategy, but with the aim of achieving meaningful progress.

There are four pillars on which this strategy is built, including safety, health and well-being, participation and inclusion and equality and non-discrimination. The strategy will aim to promote and respect the right of LGBTIQ+ people to live their lives safely and free of harassment and violence through several prevention and protection measures in these key priority areas. This will include: addressing misinformation relating to LGBTIQ+ people; developing effective approaches within the criminal justice system towards addressing the safety issues experienced by the LGBTIQ+ community; enhancing awareness of the occurrence of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence within the LGBTIQ+ community because there is evidence to suggest that LGBTIQ+ people are afraid of reporting for fear of not being believed; and improving safety for LGBTIQ+ people in public spaces.

There are commitments in this cross-departmental strategy to invest in mental health services to improve access and provide tailored and specific supports for LGBTIQ+ people. This is essential because research has shown LGBTIQ+ people can face significant health issues, including high levels of depression, anxiety and stress. Another important commitment in the strategy is continuing to address and prevent LGBTIQ+ bullying in schools. I know from my time as Minister for Education that providing an inclusive education for our young people through fostering respect and understanding, promoting respect for diversity, reducing bullying and ensuring students feel a sense of belonging is of utmost importance. Our updated curriculum and anti-bullying measures in schools are working to create classrooms where students feel more included, more understood and more valued. The Irish word for kindness is "cineáltas". The Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying in schools is a key tool in tackling behaviour or language that intends to harm a student because of their membership of the LGBTIQ+ community.

Community-led organisations across the country have been supported with crucial funding to promote inclusion, protect rights and improve quality of life and well-being for LGBTIQ+ people. Many of these organisations open their doors and their phone lines to listen, to welcome and to offer support to members of the community. Particularly in more rural areas, these spaces and organisations play such an important and central role. We must continue to nurture and support them. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality has a LGBTI+ community services fund which has provided €5.46 million in funding to 138 projects since 2020. I acknowledge that the former Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, is in the Chamber. I acknowledge also his work in this regard and, indeed, in terms of the strategy. The fund supports the establishment and enhancement of safe spaces in their many forms across the country. The importance of these safe spaces for LGBTIQ+ people cannot be underestimated in creating connections, solidarity and a sense of belonging.

For example, Youth Work Ireland with the support of the LGBTI+ community fund launched a new online youth cafe in January this year. It is held monthly for young neurodiverse LGBTQI+ people aged 18 to 24 years old to connect safely with peers and be supported by trained youth workers. I recently launched the funding call for the 2025 version of the community services fund with €1.4 million of funding being made available.

The increased levels of harassment and persecution of LGBTIQ+ people globally make many of our LGBTIQ+ citizens feel unsafe. We cannot stand by and let such sentiments take hold in Ireland. Kindness, understanding, solidarity and hope are the values and beliefs that must remain central to our work as we continue on the journey of equality. As the old Irish saying goes "Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine" - "We live in the shadow of one another".

Ireland has increasingly become seen as an emblem of equality, democracy and inclusion. It is a country with a proud record as a champion of human rights. The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs recent report on the European Commission’s LGBTIQ equality strategy highlighted the current challenges to LGBTIQ+ safety across Europe. In particular, the report noted that the rise of far right political forces has motivated an increase of the harassment and persecution of LGBTIQ+ persons in Europe.

Each year, the Rainbow Europe annual review ranks all 49 European countries on the basis of their legal and policy situation regarding LGBTQI+ rights. In this year’s Rainbow Europe report, Ireland placed 14th out of 49 countries in the general ranking. This represents an improvement from previous years, when Ireland placed 16th.

However, despite all the progress that has been made in making Ireland a more tolerant and welcoming place to live for the LGBTQI+ community, it is troubling to see that homophobic attacks are still taking place. Statistics published by An Garda Síochána show that there were 70 hate crimes and hate-related incidents recorded last year where the motive was hatred of a person’s sexual orientation. That is a reduction on the 109 hate crimes and hate-related incidents in 2023 where the motive was hatred of a person’s sexual orientation, but one such incident is one incident too many. We need to send a clear message to those who wish to inflict suffering on our LGBTQI+ citizens that this will not be tolerated.

In celebrating Pride, we recognise that equality is measured not only in laws and policies, but in the existence of spaces for joy, expression and inclusion. As Minister for disability, I highlight that July is also Disability Pride Month. I was impressed by the article written by Dr. Margaret Kennedy, a disability activist, in the Irish Independentthis week. She highlighted the need for disabled people to be accepted by society for who they are. She wrote:

We have a month of Disability Pride, because we who are disabled and you who are not, need one. It is OK to be deaf. It is OK to be in a wheelchair. It is OK to have cerebral palsy, or a speech ... [impediment], or autism. There is nothing bad or wrong about you having these conditions.

What has happened is that the world has still not accepted who we are. That is their loss.

Disabled people have many gifts to bring. Wisdom. Joy. Successes. We are proud of who we are. And [of] all [that] we achieve.

That is a powerful message and one that is well worth amplifying.

Pride is both a celebration and a protest. It is also a promise that Ireland will continue to be a place where equality grows and where no one is left behind. I reiterate that the Government remains committed to working with and for the LGBTQI+ community as we continue on our journey of equality.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I begin by thanking the Minister, Deputy Foley, for her leadership and stewardship of the Department. Her last remarks clarify her position in terms of her commitment to equality. I thank her for that. I also pay tribute to the former Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, who is in the House this afternoon, for his leadership and courage as a Minister, but also for going to Budapest Pride. He sent a clear message on behalf of us all about the need for strong leadership. I thank him for that and déanaim comhghairdeas leis.

This is a very important debate because through celebrating pride, we recognise that we are ten years on from marriage equality at one level and have made significant progress, while recognising that significant challenges remain. As the Minister said, it is not just about laws; it is about our attitudes, our words, our spaces and our commitment as members of civic society.

On behalf of Cork, I wish all Members of the House a happy Cork Pride, which begins next weekend. I thank Deputy Rice, who was a former chief executive of the Cork Gay Project. Cork Pride is different in that it happens at a different time to other parts of the world. It will be held during the August bank holiday weekend. It is an important visible piece on what we do as a city as part of the rainbow city. It would be remiss of me not to pay tribute to the late Siobhán O'Dowd for her Trojan work and leadership as an advocate, activist and human rights champion. She was a person who strove to do what the Minister said, to make our world a better place for all of us, whether it was the most vulnerable LGBT people, or the people she met in every part of her daily work.

For many of us who were part of the campaign for marriage equality, it is probably still hard to believe that we voted in a plurality in the way we did. We are also very fortunate that in the Houses of the Oireachtas we have a Members' LGBT caucus and a staff representative association. We fly the rainbow flag and hold a coffee morning, which in themselves are not major things, but they are symbols of the inclusive, diverse Parliament we all represent and that we park our political ideology. I also pay tribute to our great friends, who are no longer Members of the House, former Senators Fintan Warfield and David Norris, who, along with me and Deputy Malcolm Byrne, started the campaign for the Houses to hold those two simple but effective and positive symbols of inclusivity and diversity in our Houses.

We will never forget the scenes in Dublin Castle. Stepping back to where we came from to marriage equality to now, I am conscious of the fact, as David Norris said recently, that there were only six or seven people at the first gay pride parade in Cork, including Kieran Rose and Arthur Leahy. They were champions on an arduous journey to lead to political change. We did it incrementally. Many people disagreed with us and thought we should have gone full throttle, but history will judge and the Irish people were generous. We have made significant progress, while recognising that we have challenges. That is why Pride is still important. That is why it is critical that we do not just celebrate and commemorate the past but that we challenge each other about the future and the world we live in today. It is about defending where we are, but is also about shaping a more inclusive future.

The European Parliament's review and ILGA-Europe's annual review highlight situations where people cannot be free to be who they are and who are not in a position like ours in this Chamber, whose allies and friends support us and raise the issues of anti-hate speech and discrimination and speak about violent attacks on the streets. While more people are free to be out and be open, many people are seeing an increase in violence, harassment and bullying against them. That is why, as the Minister said, we cannot have any tolerance for harassment and violence. I also make the point that we, as parliamentarians, have an obligation and responsibility to challenge those who have a different view to ours and to call them out for what they say in these Chambers, be it in the Dáil or the Seanad.

Today, the Emerald Warriors, a gay rugby team from Ireland, are champions of the Union Cup. The Cork Hellhounds won a competition. Next Saturday, on the eve of the All-Ireland Hurling Final, two gay teams from the North and South of our island will play a match in MTU in Cork. I thank Cork's Na Laochra Aeracha, for its wonderful work under the leadership of Aaron Kelly. I thank Richie Fagan of the Emerald Warriors for what they have done. They have encouraged inclusivity in sport and diversity. Aeracha Uladh coming to Cork shows the power of sport in uniting and raising the rainbow flag.

We have come a long way, but what does it really mean to be free to be who you are and to belong when people around the world are trying to take away the rights we won and campaigned for? These people are in parts of the world where one would imagine they should know better. They are meant to be the champions of democracy. We can never take the progress we have made for granted. That is why Pride, role models and tonight's statements are critical. We need campaigns and visibility. We must also recognise that marriage equality did not put the roof on the house. It was a key moment that we will never forget. I can wear this ring because of the generosity of the Irish people and I will never forget that. We must do more. That is why it is critical that we listen to and understand each other in this debate. As Charlie Bird said in his book, it was "Some Day in May".

The progress we have made is one we will continue. That is why I have made the commitment in the Department of rural and community affairs, along with the Minister, Deputy Foley, to always be that champion. We will always be the advocate and work with every Member of this House because there is very little that divides us on the matter of Pride and equality. I look forward to working with all Members to ensure that we continue to allow people to live safely, to be free in their workplace, to be free to be who they are and, more importantly, that we stand up to those who want to row back. We stand with our friends in the trans community, conscious that we have to take a journey there as well and we must do that.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Hear, hear.

Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ministers agus a chairde go léir, it is an honour to stand before you today as an ally and a proud supporter of the LGBTQI+ community. Over the month of June, we celebrated Pride around the country and around the world. Pride is a powerful expression of identity, resilience and love. I had the pleasure of walking in the 2025 Dublin Pride Parade alongside the Tánaiste, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, as well as attending the Pride parade in my hometown of Westport. I really can attest to this expression. However, we must remember Pride is not just simply a parade; it is also a protest, a history and a journey. It serves as a reminder of how far we have come but also of the hard truth that progress, particularly continued progress, is never guaranteed. In Ireland, that journey to progress has been both painful and profound.

One of the most poignant stories in the history of LGBTQI+ rights in this country is that of Declan Flynn. Declan was killed in Fairview Park in Dublin in 1982 by a group who were all part of "the team to get rid of queers in Fairview Park". His death coincided with a series of beatings that were being dished out to gay men in Fairview Park at the time. His killers were not jailed, with the group given suspended sentences for manslaughter. This drew surprise and concern from many people across the country. The response to the verdict was the largest gay rights demonstration that had ever been seen in Ireland. It was a defiant show of strength in the deeply conservative Ireland of the time. That June, the first gay pride march would take place in Dublin. Many regard the sad case of Declan Flynn as the catalyst for the Pride movement in Ireland.

It is in our living memory that simply being gay in this country was a crime. Silence and stigma loomed over Ireland until 1993, when homosexuality was finally decriminalised. This was a change driven by people who fought relentlessly - often against the tide - for equality. From that moment, we saw massive changes. The year 2010 saw the introduction of civil partnerships and 2015 saw the historic moment as Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular referendum. As we celebrate that decade, I congratulate the almost 80 couples in my home county who got married. We also saw the Gender Recognition Act coming into force in 2015. That legislation allows transgender people to have their gender recognised by the State. While this was a step in the right direction, we must continue to be aware that the journey for true equality for trans people is far from over.

These are just three examples of the progress that has been made in Ireland, but Pride also serves as a reminder of the work we still have to do. We have LGBTQI+ youths who are growing up in fear in this country. There are trans people who are waiting years to access healthcare in this country. We know of many attacks on the community in the context of a landscape at the moment that too often provides a platform for hate. Rights for the LGBTQI+ community are under attack, with 676 hate crimes and hate-related incidents reported to An Garda Síochána in 2024. That was an increase on the previous year. Research published by Trinity College Dublin and BelonG To, namely Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland 2024, found that 45% of the community in Ireland feel unsafe holding hands with a same-sex partner in public and that over half of trans and non-binary people feel unsafe expressing their gender identity in public. The research further found that one in four members of Ireland's LGBTQI+ community have been punched, hit or physically attacked just as a result of their identity. A 2024 report, LGBTIQ equality at a crossroads: progress and challenges, by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that more than one in three faced discrimination in their daily life because of who they are and more than one in two were victims of hate-motivated harassment.

I welcome the commitment in the programme for Government to improve and protect the rights of the community in Ireland. In recognising the threat to the community here compared with other jurisdictions, we must continue to make progress for this community. I support the implementation of the national LGBTQI+ inclusion strategy, which focuses on safety, health and well-being, participation and inclusion, equality and non-discrimination and which also includes those online. I also note the commitment to improving access to health services for LGBTQI+ people. Importantly, I really welcome plans to advance legislation to ban conversion practices and look forward to going through this at the Joint Committee on Children and Equality, which I chair.

Ireland is a country that voted for love. We were the first to legalise it by popular vote. It is a country where community matters. This does not happen by chance; it happens because people speak out and do the hard work necessary to build a more equal society, whether that is in Fairview Park in Dublin or Stonewall in New York where suits of equality were led by the bravest of individuals who refused to be silenced in the face of injustice. That is the legacy that is ours to carry on. Now is not the time to roll back rights for LGBTQI+ people. It is not the time for rights to retreat. We are seeing instances of this rollback in Ireland from people who wish to frame inclusion as a threat and treat difference as a danger. Now is the time that all of us who are allies of the LGBTQI+ community must be loud in our support. Pride remains a political act. It demands bravery, not only from those in the community but also from those of us who are allies.

As I said at the beginning of my address, I had the pleasure of walking in the Dublin Pride Parade in June. My support should not and will not end there, however. It will continue for the other 364 days of the year as a TD, as chair of the children and equality committee, and, more importantly, as an ally of the LGBTQI+ community. I want to make it clear that I will call out and challenge hate wherever it happens, in public or political discourse in media and in our communities. I will continue to push for protections against hate crimes and hate speech. I will continue to push for inclusivity in our schools, healthcare and communities, because every person has the right to live free from fear. While those of us here today in this Chamber may hold different views on various things, it is my hope that we can be united on this, namely that the politics of hate have no place in Dáil Éireann or in our constituencies or communities.

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I grew up in a very republican household. I was taught well by my father the values of service to the community and inclusion. I see parallels with Pride and the LGBT community in our country. Our queer comrades were oppressed by means of unfair laws, church doctrine and social stigma. The first Pride march in Dublin took place in June 1983 amid a culture of violence perpetrated against vulnerable segments of Irish society and emphasised by the murders of Charles Self, John Roche and Declan Flynn in the few months prior. On 21 January 1982, Charles Self, an openly gay man, was brutally murdered at his home in south Dublin. He was found dead at the foot of the stairs having been stabbed 14 times and strangled. His murderer has never been found. John Roche was also stabbed to death in a frenzied attack Cork city because he was gay. The judge who handed down the sentence in that case said he believed John enticed the killer to take part in homosexual acts and stated, "After engaging in these acts you were likely to feel hostility and revulsion". The day after Mr. Roche's killing, Declan Flynn was killed by teenagers in Fairview Park in north Dublin, who specifically targeted him and others because of their sexuality. It was queer-bashing. Declan was not their first victim that summer; not by far. They had beaten as many as 20 men in the previous six weeks, but Declan was their first killing. In their statements presented in court in 1983, they described themselves as vigilantes and indicated that they believed they were serving justice for the good of society. Mr. Flynn's killers received suspended sentences. The ruling caused public outrage and led to one of the earliest and largest demonstrations in support of gay rights on the streets of Dublin. The Flynn family described the decision as an insult. Declan's father stated, "They walked out of court free but my son cannot walk out of Glasnevin."

It would be ten years after these murders before homosexuality in Ireland was decriminalised following Herculean efforts on the part of and led by the then Senator, David Norris, and the former commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, my friend Kieran Rose. However, the legislation introduced at the time did not expunge convictions. Research by the Irish historian Diarmuid Ferriter shows that hundreds of men were jailed for homosexual offences.

The laws to which I referred at the outset were also used to imprison our very own Oscar Wilde.

This was the background to the first Pride march in Dublin in June 1983. Society at that time was largely fearful of people it did not understand and victimised them through the use of dehumanising laws inherited from Britain. Beyond these archaic laws were families, friends, colleagues and employers who may have spewed the hateful rhetoric that terrified people into remaining quiet and closeted or suffering self-loathing at being unable to change who they were. This is precisely why Pride is both a protest and a celebration. It is a protest at the unjustness of centuries of persecution, horrific violence and hatred. It is also a jubilant celebration of how far we have home that our queer community members are free to love and marry who they wish without fear of persecution by means of laws that would render them unequal members of our society and to have the intrinsic right to live authentic lies.

Sinn Féin unequivocally condemns attacks on the LGBTQ community. We wholly reject hateful rhetoric in Ireland and overseas. We are proud to have presented early gender recognition legislation in May 2013 and to have introduced in the Thirty-fourth Dáil a Bill which would exonerate all who were convicted under Ireland's unjust anti-homosexuality laws. We urge all TDs to support Deputy Ó Snodaigh's Bill, which is currently on Second Stage. We must fight relentlessly for people's right to be respected and stand firm to ensure that the damaging discourse which has prevailed and which is rearing its ugly head across the world does not become mainstreamed in our society. We celebrate Ireland's progress towards a more accepting and compassionate society, but we must redouble our efforts to stamp out homophobia, biphobia and transphobia whenever and wherever they arise. Sinn Féin will continue to stand against those who seek to marginalise, undermine and divide people's solidarity.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to these statements on Pride. I am proud to be an ally of the LGBTQI+ community. I am glad that in voting for marriage equality ten years ago, we did not just stop at that point and say "Job done". It is important that we continue the conversation and face head on the challenges that remain for those in the LGBTQI+ community. The inequalities that community faces endure and the battle to overcome these inequalities continues, so we must also continue to break down those inequalities and ensure that every person who lives on this island, no matter who they are, feels equal and safe in being who they are and never feels like they have to answer for, explain or battle for it.

As my party's spokesperson on children, I am particularly mindful of young people and the challenges they face as part of the LGBTQI+ community as they grow up. Every child deserves to grow up feeling valued and safe. That is not always the case. Our world can be especially cruel online. I acknowledge BelonG To, particularly its youth groups, and the work it does to raise awareness of the challenges young people face in their communities. Its Block the Bad campaign raised awareness of online bullying and the nasty rhetoric most of us are used to seeing in the online world. I wish to use the following as an example of the part we can all play. Roscommon Community College in my constituency, in partnership with Roscommon County Council, unveiled the first Pride rainbow crossing in Roscommon town in 2022. This was done on foot of a request from the school's student LGBTQI+ and allies group. They wanted it to be a visible symbol of inclusivity in their town. That goes to show the part young people and people of all ages can play in their communities and in schools in particular, which is important.

Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We can measure the success of any society's progress on welfare, well-being and inclusion by looking at how it treats its most marginalised groups. We are failing our most vulnerable miserably here in Ireland. Last night, we heard no shortage of horror stories about women suffering as a result of poor treatment for endometriosis in this State, with an average wait of nine years for a diagnosis. At the moment, transgender people are waiting ten years for a first appointment with the National Gender Service, the only clinic that serves gender non-conforming people in the entire State. This poses the question as to whose lives we value in this State and whose health matters. There is no doubt gender has a lot to do with the answer. I cannot put into words how much I am upset by how badly we are failing our trans boys and girls and trans men and women. All they want is to be allowed to be themselves and to be recognised and loved for that. As the mother of four kids, I find this heartbreaking. I hope to be the kind of mother who listens without judgment, hugs without hesitation and stands by them without fear. I empathise with and commend all the proud mammies and daddies of trans kids who are fighting so hard for their kids to have decent lives. We would all do well to put ourselves in the shoes of those mammies and daddies. Perhaps then we would have a system that looks a whole lot different than the one we have today.

In 2022, Transgender Europe found that Ireland had the worst transgender healthcare in all of Europe. There is solid evidence showing that reliable and open access to gender-affirming care is essential to improving outcomes for trans people. We are inflicting immeasurable and necessary trauma by denying trans people basic healthcare and security. We are forcing trans people to seek surgeries abroad and self-medicate, thereby putting their lives in danger. We need to take a step back, look at the National Gender Service and ask if it is fit for purpose if many trans people are coming out of there feeling worse off than when they went in. We need to listen to the trans community and have their voices at the centre of these conversations. At the moment, far-right ideology based on misinformation is steering this conversation on a serious human rights issue. The political establishment is without a peep on this matter. One would wonder why. Shame on all of us. We need to do better.

Tá stair na hÉireann lán le scéalta de ghrúpaí imeallaithe ar cuireadh ina dtost. Ná bíodh an deireadh céanna i ndán do phobal eile. Ireland's history is full of stories of a people silenced. Let us not repeat that history with another community.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Pride is about continuing solidarity with the members of the LGBT community we are lucky enough to call friends, privileged enough to call family and also the wider community. It is also about remembering how far that community has come, how we got here and why we, as a collective, must never take the progress made for granted. The LGBT+ community has in the past been a painful contradiction, with warmth and acceptance from that community and their families but silence and cruelty from the State. The latter meant that it was 1993 before being gay was finally not considered a crime. Even after the law changed, much else remained the same. I refer to the fear, the stigma and the inequality.

I commend my colleague Deputy Ó Snodaigh for introducing the Disregard of Historic Offences for Consensual Sexual Activity Between Men Bill 2025 recently. When Declan Flynn was murdered and his killers walked away with suspended sentences, the message to the LGBTQ+ people was chilling, namely "Your life is not worth the same". That can never be forgotten. Declan's memory inspired a new generation of campaigners who organised protested and refused to be invisible.

Ireland has changed. When the people voted proudly and decisively for marriage equality, that moment told LGBTQ+ people that they are equal and that they belong. The work of equality did not end with the vote; it is what comes in the weeks, months and years since and to come. What has happened in recent years give me some cause for concern. The rise of anti-LGBTQ+ crimes and rhetoric is alarming. The brutal murders in Sligo three years ago are a heartbreaking reminder that violence is not in the distant past. Our LGBTQ+ community, though strong and resilient, needs the remainder of us to be allies not just for one day but every day and in every space. We must not let imported culture wars distract or divide us. Our future path must be based on equality. Pride is not performative, it is powerful. It is built on the memories of those lost and the hope for those today and in the future.

Let us make future generations look back at us and say that, in our time, we had the courage to stand up, the strength to speak out and the unity to move forward to equality together.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Pride is about equality, solidarity and community and as an Irish republican, these principles are fundamental to me. I am very proud to stand here as an ally. Pride is also about love, acceptance and the joy of acknowledging and celebrating every person's authentic self.

Tá cearta agus comhionannas ríthábhachtach ach tá sé chomh tábhachtach céanna go dtógaimid pobal inar bhfeictear gach duine, ina gcloistear iad, agus ina bhfuil grá, cineáltas agus meas glactha mar chroílár na beatha. Visibility matters. It matters just as much in rural areas, towns and villages as it does in our cities and the media. Across Waterford, I have seen the power of Pride to build connection and belonging. I was proud to walk this year in Pride of the Déise in Waterford city, and over many years to support local initiatives in Dungarvan and across the county. The message from young people, families and older members of the LGBTQ+ community has always been clear: representation matters, and seeing yourself in your community matters.

Pride cannot just be about waving a flag or adding a splash of colour to a website. Its roots lie in protest and in Stonewall, where people rose up against discrimination and brutality. That radical spirit still matters because we must not only celebrate the gains, but defend them and challenge the inequalities that remain. From youth homelessness to mental health, we know LGBTQ+ people still face systemic discrimination, especially outside urban centres. Rural LGBTQ+ people deserve the same services, safety and visibility as anyone else. That includes safe housing, inclusive healthcare and properly resourced community supports.

Let us not forget how far we have come. It has been nearly a decade since the marriage equality referendum. It has been over 30 years since the State decriminalised homosexuality. These gains were not gifted. They were won by people who refused to accept silence or shame.

Tá cumhacht ar leith ag baint le saol a chaitheamh le bród, le bheith mar chuid de phobal, le glactha le daoine eile agus a bheith glactha tú féin. Is é sin croílár an Bhróid. We cannot stop at civil rights and equality before the law. We must keep fighting for full lived equality, and for the right to be seen, safe, supported and celebrated. Pride is protest, solidarity and community. No matter where you live, in a rural area, town or city, Pride belongs to us all.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I start by welcoming two very good friends of mine, Jacinta and Geraldine, who are visiting the House today in the week they celebrate their ninth wedding anniversary. I also welcome friends from our own Labour Party LGBTQI group, who are with us in the Public Gallery this evening as well.

In many regards, Ireland has led the way to social progress for members of the LGBTQI+ community. I am pleased to say that the Labour Party has been behind much of this progress. It was the Labour Party that gave the first ever legal protections to gay and lesbian people by amending the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act. In 1993, we delivered on our promise to abolish the criminal offences relating to homosexual acts. I also want to use this opportunity to commend former Senator David Norris, who was a leading campaigner around the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

In 2018, on the 25th anniversary of that decriminalising of homosexuality, the Labour Party secured an official State apology for gay and bisexual men. We have yet to see any real, meaningful steps by the Government to disregard these convictions, however. All through our history, the Labour Party has been and continues to be a party committed to achieving equality for our LGBT+ comrades. We were the first political party to propose legislation to recognise same-sex couples in the law through the former Deputy Brendan Howlin's Civil Unions Bill. In 2015, we delivered on our promise to hold a referendum on marriage equality, which passed by a landslide. We also introduced the Gender Recognition Act, marking for the first time in Ireland transgender men and women being allowed to self-declare their own gender identity.

It has been said here many times today that Pride is not just a celebration. It is also founded on a base of activism and protest. We can never forget that. We can never forget the pivotal points in history that bring communities together to fight for equal rights, like the death of Declan Flynn in 1982, a 31-year-old gay man who was brutally attacked in Fairview Park in Dublin and later died from his injuries; John Roche and Charles Self, who were killed that same year; or the recent murders of Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee, who were killed just because they were gay. We must continue to put these deaths to the forefront of our minds when we speak about Pride.

These changes do not just happen. They are a result of years of hard work and campaigning. They are about being bold, brave and proud. However, we have seen in recent years that far right governments across the world are trying to row back on any rights for the LGBTQ+ community. We saw this recently in Hungary. I want to stand with the Minister of State, who acknowledged Deputy O'Gorman's presence there, and also members of our own Labour Party who made a trip to Hungary in the last number of weeks as well.

There continue to be attacks by far right groups on LGBTQ+ people, and I am particularly concerned about the impact this is having on young people. According to BeLonG To, there has been a significant decline in the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people in Ireland since 2016, with even more significant challenges for younger age groups. We need to continue to fight hate in all its forms and ensure we can be a more equal Ireland so that young people know that things can and will get better.

While Ireland has had strong rights in place for many LGB people, the same cannot be said for our trans community. It is now a decade since the passage of the Gender Recognition Act. Despite this, transgender health in Ireland is consistently ranked as the worst in Europe. My Labour Party colleagues and I have met a number of trans rights groups regarding issues impacting them, access to basic health, issues with the National Gender Service and the major challenges highlighted. I know my colleagues will talk more on this in the coming minutes.

I will hand over to the rest of my colleagues, if that is okay with the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Speaking to members of the community who were around in the first Pride and subsequent Prides, the movement was rooted in protest, demonstration and anger. We are here tonight in that spirit with regard to transgender healthcare.

I want to read two things. My colleague, Deputy Wall, referred to how we were bottom of the list in Europe with regard to transgender healthcare. In the 2020 programme for Government, the Government's commitment was to:

Create and implement a general health policy for Trans people, based on a best-practice model for care, in line with the World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH) and deliver a framework for the development of National Gender Clinics and Multidisciplinary Teams for children and adults.

That was good and was going in the right direction. The current Government, in its programme for Government, has a commitment to ensure "a transgender healthcare service that is based on clinical evidence, respect, inclusiveness and compassion." This commitment is almost meaningless compared to the commitment in 2020. We are not making progress in this area for the trans community. The trans and intersex Pride march in Dublin and Cork at the weekend demonstrated that. We are actually going backwards. This Government's own messaging is going backwards. That is why we in the Labour Party are today tabling a trans healthcare motion on the Order Paper, which my colleague will talk about in more detail, to bring the Government back to where it should be going.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Pride is political and Pride is protest. It is a reminder of how far we have come but how far we have yet to go. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the marriage equality referendum but also the passage of the Gender Recognition Act. In that time, we have seen a deliberate and provocative attempt to marginalise, undermine and dehumanise trans people. As has been said by my colleagues, we have the worst system of trans healthcare in Europe. People have come to me and told me that the wait time is 13 years at the moment, and there are 2,000 people waiting for care.

The fact of the matter is the Government is not following the World Health Organization's guidelines regarding trans healthcare. We need to move to a model of informed consent. That is the way we deal with other gender-related healthcare such as HRT. The fact is that, in this country, we force trans people to go through a dehumanising and humiliating process.

I want to speak about the need for much stronger hate speech law. We need the Government to clarify its position because there is a gulf between, say, the lack of legislative action and the stated commitments in both the national LGBTQI+ strategy and the programme for Government. We need to see a full assessment of the legal gaps and the Government's response to the concerns raised by the European Commission and a legislative roadmap thereafter.

In the time remaining to me, I will speak to an issue that is close to my own area of Limerick. Limerick Pride, QuareClare and The Outing have been shortlisted to host the 2028 EuroPride. This is a pan-European event hosted by a different European city every year. If this was to come to Limerick and the mid-west, what a testament it would be to the progress made in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Imagine, the year after the Ryder Cup, if we hosted another landmark event that could bring 100,000 people to Limerick and Clare. It would be transformative for the mid-west culturally and economically. I am looking for the Government and the Minister of State to place their support for this bid on the record of the House.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is much to be proud of and celebrate in the ten years since the passing of the marriage equality referendum and the Gender Recognition Act 2015, but it is incumbent on us to call out and name the lived reality of so many of our friends in the LGBTQ+ community. It is terrifying to see the very real mental health crisis happening at the moment. My colleagues and others referred to the research by Belong To and Trinity College Dublin, which refers to figures as high as 75% of 19-to-25-year-olds reporting suicidal thoughts. That is terrifying. The figures are even higher for those in the trans community. That is why the Labour Party felt so strongly today about tabling a motion on the Order Paper to call for a number of specific and clear actions: to replace the National Gender Service; and to establish a national clinical programme for trans healthcare in Ireland, ensuring a key role for GPs and a major recruitment of the specialists required for gender-affirming care. There are hundreds of people throughout this country being failed day in, day out because of the lack of GPs who want to recognise, work and support young people who are trans and want that gender-affirming healthcare. We also need a clear and unequivocal ban on conversion therapies. We need to ensure there is clear guidance for transgender healthcare for under-18s. We need to implement the recommendations of the 2018 Government review of the Gender Recognition Act.

There are critical needs but two key actions can be taken now by the Minister of State in particular. First, there is one part-time counsellor in the whole country for the LGBTQ+ community. That number needs to be increased. Second, an organisation, Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre, in my own constituency provides services to between 4,000 and 5,000 every year. Its funding will be in danger at the end of this year. We need to make sure it is supported to continue its excellent work for people in Dublin and across the State.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As we recognise Pride week here in Dáil Éireann, I am deeply honoured to stand before Members, not just as Minister of State for mental health and the Government Chief Whip, but as a proud mother, ally and advocate for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in Irish life. I am especially proud of who I am and who my family is. My son is a transgender young man, and seeing him grow into his own identity reminds me daily of the urgent need for compassion, dignity and fairness in public policy. His story is part of a broader narrative that we must honour by continuing to build a State that cherishes all of our children equally, that truly supports all its people without exception.

Sometimes the debate in relation to trans issues rages on social media without facts or understanding. It can be very hurtful. We should all reject those nasty opinions from people who do not understand the hurt and pain for young trans people who have to navigate a difficult enough pathway in their lives.

Pride is more than a celebration. It is a declaration of our shared values: equality, respect and community. Over the past decade, we have transformed Ireland, becoming the first country to recognise same-sex marriage through popular vote in 2015 and enacting the Gender Recognition Act that same year, which allowed legal gender change through self-determination. Clearly, our work is not done. In just the past few months, we have strengthened hate crime legislation. Since December 2024, Ireland has what is widely recognised as some of the toughest and most comprehensive protections in Europe, explicitly including gender identity.

Our Department of Children, Disability and Equality has launched an updated national LGBTI inclusion strategy. Together with Belong To, we are introducing inclusive youth supports, including the “Rainbow Award" programme in schools and youth services.

On mental health specifically, we have made historic advancements. Just last month, a new guidance and training resource supporting LGBTQI+ inclusion in mental health services was launched. This comprehensive guidance and training resource was developed with the Mental Health Commission. On 9 July, I had the privilege of progressing the Mental Health Bill 2024 through all Stages in this House, a landmark overhaul that embeds rights-based, person-centred care into our mental health legislation. In recent months, we also saw the launch of our 2025-27 implementation plan for Sharing the Vision, which includes a record €1.5 billion annual budget and the largest ever capital allocation of €31 million for mental health infrastructure in 2025.

However, I stand here today to acknowledge the need to do more in one area where action is lagging, namely, gender-affirming healthcare. Our programme for Government six months ago set out the commitment to develop a transgender healthcare service that was based on clinical evidence, respect, inclusiveness and compassion. I was proud to write that into the programme for Government. Those words did not come easily. Those words came from involvement with several trans organisations and working with the HSE. This is what we felt was the best way forward.

A recent EU report revealed that, for many, first appointment wait lists in Ireland are way too long, leaving trans people stranded without access to vital care. We have seen reports that confirm our trans health services are the least resourced in Europe. This is simply unacceptable. That is why our programme for Government commits not simply to promises, but to practical, evidence-based plans.

Budget 2025 invested €770,000 specifically to develop a robust, clinically grounded transgender healthcare model. We have appointed a clinical lead, established a multidisciplinary advisory group and begun a community-based pilot to better understand and serve trans young people. We are committed to a service that is rooted in clinical evidence, respect, inclusiveness and compassion, moving away from overly rigid models and towards a resilient, patient-centred standard of care.

I have met many young trans people in the last five years. They are looking for respect, compassion, appropriate counselling and supports such as endocrinology, psychology, social workers and, if appropriate because not everybody will need it, psychology. That is the multidisciplinary team that the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, and I want to develop. We are working behind the scenes to develop it.

Every single time I list a meeting in relation to trans healthcare in my diary, freedom of information requests come in on it. Every single time I speak openly about trans, I am trolled on social media. It is extremely difficult. We talk about a recruitment process. We cannot get people to work in trans healthcare in Ireland. I had a meeting yesterday. People simply do not want to work there because of the abuse, the vileness and venom to which they are subjected. We will try really hard to deliver a service. I look forward to visiting the service in Drogheda, for example, that supports many hundreds of children and young people aged under 18 years. I agree with the Deputy in relation to the service in Loughlinstown. I am not convinced. There is a long waiting list there but I am certainly not convinced in relation to its model of care.

In the time ahead, I will continue to work with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and colleagues across the Government and the HSE to ensure that we put this model in place and it is supported by adequate funding. Supporting our trans citizens is not optional. It is and must be a measure of our shared humanity. It is also a work in progress. The funding commitments, clinical frameworks and improved access are only as strong as the promptness of their execution.

I am proud to say, as the mother of a trans man living in Ireland, it is one of the safest countries in the world to be a trans young person. There are countries you could simply not go to and we must recognise that.

I also recognise the work of the Department of Social Protection on gender recognition when people turn 18. It gives support and help to young people, including helping to access a birth certificate and passport. You have to go through the system to understand it. The Department is exceptional, with a turnaround time of ten days.

As a Government, we must monitor and reduce the wait times systematically, as we must across all health services. We must publish a full model of care as soon as possible. We must expand capacity in gender services, including examining the development of new regional hubs that have worked in other areas. We must stop exporting trans healthcare as if it is someone else's problem. We must ensure continuity of care for those referred from other jurisdictions.

I feel this responsibility personally. I have seen the distress that prolonged uncertainty brings and the courage it takes for young people and families to demand better. We must continue to meet that challenge head-on with empathy, respect, dignity, resources and urgency.

I also acknowledge the work of advocacy organisations, including BelonG To, TEN-I, ChillOUT in Waterford and others, which have driven progress, raised awareness and held us to account. There is no replacing lived and living experience in the crafting of good policy, and I thank them for their partnership.

The Pride celebrations for this year may have drawn to a close but I say to all members of the community that I stand with them, I hear them and I remain committed to action over my words today. Pride is more than visibility. It is the continuous demand for real change, and Ireland has made that demand manifest. From the ballot box to this House and the health services that serve our communities, we will not rest until equality is lived out in every interaction. As a Minister of State, mother and proud ally, I pledge that the lives of LGBTQ+ people, and especially trans children and adults, must guide the steps we take this year and beyond.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Hear, hear.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Well done to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. Thank you.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State knows, Pride is a protest. In recent years, we have seen companies and large multinationals join Pride. In many ways, that has been welcome and positive for those who work in those companies. It sends out a positive message that they are accepted and recognised as a part of these companies, and that their workplaces are safe. That is a good thing for those people. However, in all the positivity, we cannot lose sight of the fact that Pride is a protest.

There are Irishmen walking the streets today who were previously convicted of being gay. We must protest that, and change it. When our trans brothers and sisters are attacked in the British courts and the American Parliament, we must protest. When young gay men and women are attacked on our streets, we must protest.

In recent years, I have spoken to members of the LGBTQI community in Cork. They have told me they feel less safe on the streets now, which is a shocking thing to hear. We need to tackle that.

In 2006 in Derry, there was an upsurge in homophobic attacks. The following year, the then junior minister, Ian Paisley Junior MLA, gave an interview to Hot Press in which he said he was repulsed by homosexuality. Can you imagine a junior minister saying that? In response, Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness MLA, launched Gay Pride in Derry. In the first year, homophobic attacks reduced by 80%. That is what political leadership can do. That is what Pride can do when people stand together. I am proud to be a part of a party for which Martin McGuinness led the way. Eighteen years ago, he stood up for his community because he believed it to be under attack. He did not do so because it would win votes. He did so because he had a vision of this island that was inclusive, welcoming and equal to all.

Republican LGBTQI activist Seán Garland from Belfast said: "You cannot just stand for a certain section of liberty. You must defend the liberation of the whole nation." Ní neart go cur le chéile. There is no strength without unity.

Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on her speech, for her allyship and for speaking out. I know it is not easy. She has our full support. We hope to work together to progress trans healthcare and the Minister of State has the support of many of us across the House. I look forward to working with her to progress that. I thank her for her allyship and her words. They matter to many people.

I am delighted to be contributing to statements on Pride. I am proud to be a member of the LGBT community. Being a part of the community has been one of the most positive aspects of my life. The LGBT community is like a second chosen family for many of us. It is a tribe like no other. I am also proud to have spent many years working as an LGBT advocate with Cork Gay Project and LGBT Ireland, and as a volunteer. I am now proud to be an openly gay Member of Parliament. I am just one of many from the different parties in the Houses.

However, it was not always like this. It was often a lonely path for many. One person in particular who walked that lonely journey was former Senator David Norris. He was the only out LGBT Member of the Houses for 24 years. I thank and commend him. His was a powerful voice. He did Trojan work for a very long time. I often think of his words on the day of the marriage equality referendum. He said, "The message from this small independent republic to the entire world is one of dignity, freedom and tolerance. Liberté, fratnernité, égalité." I often think of those words when I come to this House.

Ten years on from the marriage equality moment, we must look back and think about what has changed and improved, and ask what we have done in the decade since. We have not done enough and have not made enough of that moment and the huge swell of support that was there. While we have won the right to walk down the aisle, many of us still look over our shoulder as we walk down the street and I do not think it is good enough. We are ranked 14th in Europe for LGBT human rights and policy protections. We have been stuck at 14th for many years and are not making the progress we need to make.

I welcome the national LGBT strategy. In a previous role with LGBT Ireland, I did a painstaking analysis of the previous Government strategy. We went through every single action and graded it. The Government got a C-plus for that strategy. The senior Minister used to be a schoolteacher. If she were giving a C-plus to a student, she would tell him or her to do better. The Government got an F grade in respect of trans rights and intersex rights. There is work to be done.

Many people in the House have talked about the progress that has been made. It is always worth acknowledging that it is rarely the politicians who make progress. It was the activists. People took cases. People, including David Norris, Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan, sued the State. Lydia Foy sued in respect of gender recognition. These are the people who forced the State, kicking and screaming, to make progress on rights. Other activists, such as Arthur Leahy and Siobhán O'Dowd, who was mentioned earlier, pushed and pushed. That is why we have seen progress on these issues.

There is a lot of work to do. Some of it has been mentioned. We have talked about trans healthcare, which is lifesaving. We need to improve the Gender Recognition Act. We need gender recognition for non-binary people. We need to ban conversion practices. We need to update the incitement to hatred Act. We need to commence the assisted reproduction Act. We need to commence, in particular, the Parts relating to the Children and Family Relationships Act, which are ready to go. I do not understand why they have not been commenced. We need to pass the disregard legislation. We have not even started to talk about intersex rights, which need to be radically advanced. We also need to improve sexual health services across the country. I could go on. There is a lot of work to do and we need to work together, across these Houses, to advance rights. Collectively, we should set the goal of becoming the best country in Europe to be LGBT. It is a target that we can reach if we work together to do some of the things on the checklist.

I say to queer people across the country, particularly those who are still struggling with their sexuality or gender identity, that it does get better. Coming out is transformative. It has a positive impact on your life. As the Minister of State said, this is a good place to be LGBT. I commend the Minister of State again. I welcome these statements.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Ministers of State for the opportunity to speak on this issue this evening. In doing so, as a very proud dad and youth worker, I want to maintain my focus this evening on the young people of Ireland. Professional youth workers in Ireland are doing a phenomenal job in working with young LGBTQI+ people to ensure they have a safe space to learn, share experiences, have fun and develop a critical social analysis.

Speaking after this year's Dublin Pride, the CEO of BeLonG To, an organisation doing some of the most important work with young people, educators and policymakers, Moninne Griffith, said:

This year marks 10 years since the marriage equality referendum. At that time, Ireland told LGBTQI+ young people it was safe to come out and to be who they are. Today, with a small but loud minority trying to roll back on LGBTQI+ rights and inclusion, we're still fighting to make this a reality. Young people and the ... community cannot achieve this on our own.

Ms Griffith continued:

For the majority in Ireland today, we know that the values of compassion, openness and inclusivity are core. That is who we are as a nation.

That is why BeLonG To marched under both the progress Pride flag and our Tricolour, because Ireland remains a loving, caring place and that flag belongs to all of us.

However, the current situation for young people is very difficult in Ireland. The Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland study in 2024 found that young people in this community experience twice the level of suicide ideation, five times the level of suicide attempts and three times the level of severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress of the general population. These levels have increased since the last time this research was done in 2016. We know that online the hate that is fuelling this discrimination continues to grow among that small minority. That is why I use my 30 seconds to say it as many times as I can: youth workers in this country are doing a phenomenal, untold good for our society, for the young people who cannot find that space, whether they are in BeLonG To, Youth Work Ireland, Foróige or any of those small independent organisations. They are a haven. I implore this Government and all of us here to do what we can to make sure every community has a youth work service.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish a happy Pride to everybody who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning or intersex and anybody who has diverse ranges of sexual identity, gender expression, gender identity and sex characteristics. I would like to focus my comments on one particular community within that, and that is the trans community. I missed the Minister of State's speech but I will look back at it. I want to focus my comments on that community for two reasons. First, it is an area I know about. I was lucky enough to do some work with Transgender Equality Network Ireland in helping it develop its strategic plan a number of years ago. Second, this is one community who need more than any other our allyship as a population and our leadership as politicians. The reality is that for trans people in Ireland, although we have progressive gender recognition legislation, the outcomes for people in the transgender community are far more challenging than for those of us in the cis community. Employment is harder to access; education is harder to access; and healthcare, of course, is critical and, unfortunately, very difficult for people in the trans community to access.

The reality is that trans people face discrimination daily. My trans friends tell me about trying to enter restaurants and other public spaces where they are routinely refused entry, shamed and stigmatised in different ways. That is simply not good enough. More than that, there is a hugely problematic toxicity around the discussion of trans rights now. People are politicising certain areas like access to public bathrooms, trans athletes and trans participation in sports, and the safety of trans women and the dangers they face. Unfortunately, what we lose in that is people's ability to simply show that leadership and allyship. People are too scared. I say to all politicians: if you do not understand trans rights, learn; if you do not know enough about this, find out, look for that information and seek the support groups and the representative groups, who will tell you. Unfortunately, within all this, when it becomes so toxic to simply discuss trans rights and their realisation, we lose the celebration of the trans community. We fail to see the joy and happiness that is experienced by a trans person who is able to be their full selves in this world and participate fully in society. As long as we lose that, we are failing that community as political leaders and as a population of allies. That is something I intend and commit to do throughout my term as a politician. At every juncture possible, including on the committee on culture, communications and sport, where I will seek to talk about trans participation in sport, I want to promote the rights of trans people and I want to remove this toxicity and stop the weaponisation and the politicisation of trans rights as a recruitment ground for far-right ideologies and get us back to a point where we treasure, cherish and nurture one of the most marginalised communities in Irish society.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am very proud of what we have done as a country. That is not politics; that is people. When we look back ten years to what was done in this jurisdiction as regards the referendum on marriage equality, we have a basis on which to be proud for the fact that we recognised at that time that love is love and that equality of access to marriage was hugely important for everyone. I was part, as many people in these Houses were, of the campaign at that time, very much a civil society campaign as opposed to a political one. The friends I made during that campaign I still am friendly with and still work with. They are proud of what we did then; I am proud of what we did then. I am proud of the fact that we are for the most part progressive as regards Pride.

However, we have a long way to go, and Ireland still has major problems as to how it views the LGBTQ+ community, how it deals with them, how it treats them and how they are seen by the law. I heard the speech the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, gave. It was incredibly moving and heartfelt. I congratulate her on it. The staff in my office upstairs were watching as well. We were all moved by it. It is important, however, to look at this through the lens of people who are not treated equally by the law. Despite the will being expressed by the people ten years ago, we had this rearguard action to row back on some things. That is notwithstanding the fact that love is love and that we made this acknowledgment in 2015. Some people decided after the fact that, actually, we have gone too far and should start to undo things, or we have gone far enough and should not do any more. Both views are wrong, from my perspective.

I think, for example, of the hate speech legislation that we tried to introduce in the last session. It was shot down by people who opposed it for entirely spurious reasons, in my view. In fact, in this Chamber, I think last week, I had a disagreement with a Member about an aspect of that and the misrepresentation of the notion that within hate speech we are saying that everybody deserves certainly the right to free speech but also to express the responsibility that comes with free speech, that you do not use it to put upon other people or to do down other people or incite hatred against them.

When I talk about Pride, I also congratulate those people in Ireland who have consistently worked in this area. I have worked with many of them, but the reality is that there has been a chilling effect for those people involved in Pride. It has not necessarily come from within this country, but look at what happened in Hungary, within the European Union, and the decisions made by Victor Orbán's Government to suppress people involved in the Pride movement. I am delighted to see that people proceeded with that Pride march and that it was the best attended and the most supported one ever in Hungary, as I understand it. The power of people that comes behind that is hugely important because that is what this is all about. It is about people. It is about recognising that people are people and should have equal opportunity to enjoy their lives as they see fit.

Even in this country, however, we know that Pride was affected by decisions made in Washington DC of all places. There was a chilling effect at a corporate level for sponsorship of Pride parades. Dungarvan Pride, as the Minister of State will know, was cancelled as a result of that kind of thing. We know that many people pulled out of it because companies were afraid there would be repercussions from the Administration in Washington. How shameful is that, both for people who were afraid of doing something that is positive in every respect and for the Government in the United States that seems to have forced them to do it?

Again, however, let us not clap ourselves on the back too much because in this jurisdiction there is still not equality, particularly for families that fall outside the norm, as it is seen by the law here. The majority of children within families from the LGBTQ+ community, that part of our society, are prevented from having a legal relationship with one parent. I have raised this issue in the Chamber before. We made progress in May 2020 when the Children and Family Relationships Act was brought into law. It is a step in the right direction, but only a small number of children benefited from that. There are still many families that exist outside the parameters of that legislation, and only one parent is deemed to be the birth or biological parent.

That creates all kinds of problems for the children in relation to the other parent in terms of inheritance. Beyond that, for things like sending notes into school, approving medical appointments or vaccines and all the normal things that parents do with their children, many parents in the LGBTQ+ families in our society, who are the same as the rest of us and have the same love for their children and express the same responsibility, are prohibited, through a lack of action in this Chamber and by the Government, from being fully participative parents because we have not moved in the way we should have moved. We have not moved with the times. As good as we are here and inasmuch as we have made progress, there is so much more to do to recognise the equality of those families and to ensure they can enjoy life just as much as those families who are “normal”, as the law says.

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Like others, I thank the Ministers of State for being here for this very important debate and discussion. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, will forgive me if I single out the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who has been a champion of the LGBT community, particularly now on trans healthcare. I am very proud to count her as a friend. On this issue in particular, she has spoken out and taken on some of the voices in these Houses who preach prejudice, and about whom colleagues have spoken. It is very important that her voice continues to be heard.

I also want to pay tribute to the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, who spoke earlier of his instrumental role in establishing the equality caucus here in Leinster House and about working with the staff equality team. We are very fortunate that within politics now, in all parties and none, there are many role models and within political parties there are LGBT groups and supportive mechanisms in place to encourage people of all backgrounds to become involved. Having those role models is critically important. That is also important in many other aspects of society too. As we move towards the all-Ireland finals, I commend Mark Shields, an all-Ireland winner for Armagh, on coming out recently. Mr. Shields spoke very bravely about some of his personal challenges. In sport, it is often a lot harder to come out. In camogie and ladies Gaelic football there are many role models but there are not too many yet in the GAA. For individuals to come out and be those role models is particularly important.

I want to raise an issue in my constituency concerning the town of Arklow. Arklow was extraordinarily progressive in painting the first rainbow crossing anywhere in this country, yet Wicklow County Council has made the decision to allow the rainbow crossing to fade. It says the Department of Transport does not provide or allow for rainbow crossings. I have asked a parliamentary question specifically on this. The Department of Transport has said it is a matter for each local authority. I ask that the Department of Transport be more proactive than saying this is a matter for each local authority. It would be an awful pity if the crossing in Arklow, the first town in the country that had a rainbow crossing in place, were allowed to fade. I know from many in the area that it is a matter of serious concern.

I am also very proud of the role Ireland is playing at a global level in promoting LGBTQI+ rights. While not everything is perfect in this country, we have come a long way. We have further to go. Unfortunately, our gay brothers and sisters in many other parts of the world do not enjoy the same freedoms and rights we enjoy here. I am very proud that during World Pride the Irish Embassy in Washington DC hosted a reception and made very clear that Ireland's support for issues around LGBTQI+ rights were to the fore. We must do so at every international forum and that includes the European Union where we must continue to call out Victor Orbán’s disgraceful behaviour towards minorities generally but in particular, as Deputy Ward said, towards the LGBT+ community. Many Irish politicians, including Deputy O’Gorman, travelled to Budapest Pride this year. Cynthia Ní Mhurchú MEP was also there. Being able to show that solidarity is critical and the fact that Ireland continues to raise this issue at European Union level, UN level and in some of our overseas development work makes me really proud.

We need to remember that when the decriminalisation of homosexuality was brought forward 30 years ago, which is a relatively short time, by the then justice Minister, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, some of the language used in this House during those debates was pretty horrific. However, we can look at what is still happening around the world. In over 60 countries, homosexuality is still a criminal offence and in a number of countries people can face the death penalty for being gay or even suspected of being gay. These include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Brunei, Nigeria and Mauritania. The death penalty is a horrific concept in any event but it is appalling that someone might face the death penalty simply because there is a perception that that person is gay.

I commend the Ministers of State on their work in this area and urge them to continue at a global level to preach the good news.

Ann Graves (Dublin Fingal East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Pride, as we know, has grown from being a small gathering in Dublin to a nationwide celebration of inclusion. It is a time when cities and towns across the island of Ireland take out the rainbow flag and welcome the progress made by the LGBTQI+ community in recent years. It is important that we recognise and celebrate the progress made but still we have more to do and we have to be vigilant. There are those who would roll back the progress and drag us back to a darker and more dangerous time.

Sinn Féin condemns the increase in attacks on LGBT+ people. We reject transphobia and homophobia in Ireland and overseas. We only have to look at Hungary to see where these reactionary forces want to take us. I commend those who, despite the bully-boy homophobic government, went ahead and organised the Pride parade in Budapest where there was a massive turnout despite the police banning it. People attended it not only to support LGBT rights but also for the country’s democratic future. It sent out an absolutely powerful message.

Closer to home, I congratulate our own Fingal Pride, which is part of the Dublin Pride group. It was launched in 2021. Its mission is to support LGBTQI+ people and their friends and families in Fingal. We organise regular events and activities throughout the county by increasing visibility and integration. This year’s Pride was held in the beautiful Swords Castle, with music, DJs and family fun. It was a real family day out. The main Dublin Pride parade was a huge success, with 12,500 on the parade and a further 100,000 gathering to support, watch and participate along the route.

It is ten years since the passing of the marriage equality referendum and the Gender Recognition Act. I ask that the Government mark this appropriately in a dignified and inclusive manner.

The decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993 was a major step forward into a brighter and better future but challenges still remain. The 1993 legislation did not expunge prior convictions under the previous draconian law. An Teachta Ó Snodaigh recently introduced legislation to do so. I urge the Government to facilitate the passing of this Bill into law as soon as possible.

Other issues affecting the LGBTQI+ community that must be addressed are youth homelessness, mental health, violence and online harassment. Sinn Féin fights for an inclusive nation based for equal rights for all.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to be able to wake up every morning beside the man I love, a man I am able to call my husband because of a decision of the Irish people, and we are able to enjoy wide-ranging protections across a whole raft of law and policy in our own country. I am grateful but I do not take it for granted because even though we have seen protections extended, gays and lesbians around the world have seen the erosion of their rights too. We have seen progress reversed. That reversal of progress has happened in countries not too distant from Ireland. When I visited Poland as equality Minister I met some of the local LGBTI+ groups who told me how the human rights institution of that state, something like the Ombudsman for Children, had been weaponised by the far-right government at the time as a tool to attack LGBTI+ youth groups which were working with young people under the age of 18.

In Hungary, we saw how the government attempted to suppress the very expression of the LGBTI+ community through trying to ban the Pride parade but we also saw the response 200,000 Hungarians gave to their government on the streets of Budapest.

I do not take progress for granted in Ireland either. We have seen significant increases in homophobic abuse and attacks on our streets. This is backed up by Garda statistics on hate crime. This situation is getting worse. We see increasingly a toxic atmosphere for gay and lesbian citizens online. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, spoke eloquently about the impact of that. We know it is getting worse.

We must also recognise the failure to meet the diverse healthcare needs of our trans and intersex community in the health services. We must recognise how even the discussion of the provision of that healthcare gets polluted by ideological attacks, rather than focusing on the healthcare needs of a very small and vulnerable part of our community.

As we undertake statements on Pride today, I hope we can avoid any sense of complacency in this Chamber and any sense of back-slapping but instead focus on the unfinished work: the threats to freedom of expression; the absence of the right to marry; the ever-present threat of death that millions of gay, lesbian and trans people face all over the world every single day; and in Ireland, the unfinished provision of health supports for trans and intersex people that this Government must act on in its term of office.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

These statements are very welcome. I thank the Deputy who raised this from the floor because there had been no statements until this. The reason it is important is that it is very clear that despite the massive rights and wonderful gains that were won for LGBT+ people ten years ago and women in terms of repeal, we are in a different era now. We are in a different space It was very noticeable on Pride that fair-weather friend corporations had shrunk to a minuscule delegation following on from what has happened in the US where the tech "broligarchy" is embedded with Trump. The era of rainbow capitalism is gone and we are now seeing attacks on LGBT rights.

I will focus on trans rights because we are all agreed that trans, non-binary and intersex people are feeling the brunt of a massive and horrific onslaught. We have the demonisation of trans people. We need a secular sex education programme in our schools to challenge these ideas that are being unleashed on the Internet. BeLonGTo was mentioned. When I went back to teaching, I helped to organise a stand up week. This is done voluntarily by teachers in their own time. It is not a standing part of school. It must be made part of all schools to affirm the rights of all young people we teach and to challenge and educate people. I was at the launch of a trans pamphlet and we discussed this. There is an awful lot of ignorance out there and a lot of it is not the fault of people themselves. It has to be challenged.

I heard the Minister of State's speech, which was very genuine. There is no question about that so I am asking her to use her power to help trans young people in particular. Often when we are personally affected by something, we appreciate it even more. I also have a trans family member. She was denied a blood test by her GP. That is where we are now. How is it allowed in our health system that a human being goes to the GP and the GP will not do a blood test because she is using hormones? Part of the reason is the National Gender Service, which is not fit for purpose, as I think the Minister of State recognises. Its members are posing as specialists. As far as I know, they are endocrinologists who specialise in obesity - not in trans healthcare - but they are giving GPs the impression that one must be an expert and should not dare assist any young person who is using healthcare that has not been through their GP. We need to move to a GP-led service just like we did with abortion and every other aspect of healthcare. We do not need a big specialist monolith which people cannot access and must wait ten years. We need this to be done by every GP. It is not rocket science, to use that cliché. Hormones are provided by GPs all the time to young girls with precocious puberty and women in menopause so they are becoming far more familiar with it. It was very moving but I am asking the Minister of State to follow this up because young people have a right to healthcare and it is shameful that political parties are leaning into the far right talking points, including those in Great Britain where transphobia is the order of the day. There is no danger in young people accessing healthcare but there is a danger to their mental health if they do not access it.

It is almost as if the Cass report recommended a ban. It did not recommend a ban. People need to educate themselves and read up on this. There is no health benefit to what happened in Northern Ireland. It had no health justification; it was a political decision, and people need to change that decision to affirm the rights of young people.

I also want to mention recognition of non-binary and intersex people. When I worked in a hospital decades ago, we were coding diagnoses and I saw the diagnosis "ambiguous genitalia". I asked the nurse what happens there and she told me that surgery was done and the parents had to pick male or female. The only surgery being done on young people is that. It is being done in our hospitals because parents are forced to choose a binary. They are not allowed to have their baby - and 1.7% are born intersex - have any recognition. That has to change. I have seen it affect people's lives so much. I have been contacted by so many parents. Only this week, parents could not get their child into the school they wanted to go to because of their non-binary status. We have to recognise that. Trans healthcare is the priority.

I ask the Minister of State to back up the very emotional speech she made. I believe she is very genuine about it but please back it up by transferring the healthcare of trans young people to GPs. Take it out of the hands of consultants, challenge these wrong notions and educate people about them.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. Fianna Fáil is very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. Back in 1993, it was then Minister for Justice, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who led the decriminalisation of homosexuality. It is hard to believe that at that time, it was still illegal. I was someone born in 1982 and throughout my secondary school years, the standard insult in primary and secondary schoolyard was to call someone gay or insult people about their sexuality. It was not until years later, in 2015, when I was out campaigning with others to have the marriage equality referendum passed that I encountered someone I had been in school with. For most people, those insults were brushed and you would tell them to go take a hike in stronger language but for some people, those words hurt hugely and well into adulthood. It was good that as a nation with those tough schoolyards in the 1980s and 1990s, we grew up a bit in 2015 and passed that all-important referendum.

I agree wholly with the point made by Deputy O'Gorman that we cannot rest on our laurels. A few years ago, we saw our Olympic hero Jack Woolley badly beaten up in a homophobic attack in the heart of Dublin city. It is the most disgusting thing to hate someone for who they are. When those attacks happen, and we have had other high-profile attacks over the years, it is very important, when the moment is right, that they come out afterwards and we call it for what it is. Sometimes these attacks are just called assaults on the street but a homophobic attack is very specific. It is an act of hatred towards someone for who they are.

I do not know who first came up with the term "Pride", but it is very appropriate because people should be proud of who they are, including their sexual orientation, their religion, their skin colour or whatever. We can be very proud of our country becoming more inclusive over the past ten to 15 years.

Other speakers referred to Hungary. I had occasion to visit Hungary last year and found it to be a very open and liberal country, yet that does not reflect the government that was voted in. Shame on Viktor Orbán and his government for how they have tried to curtail the rights and freedoms of their LGBTQ+ community in Hungary. I was only there for a matter of days, but it was a point of discussion. I do not think that is how the general population there feel.

In this day and age, there has been a great deal of enlightenment. If anyone still carries homophobic thoughts, it says a lot about who they are as a person and their character flaws that they have to project their hatred onto someone who has nothing to do with them. “Live and let live” was an old adage when we were growing up, and there is a lot to be said for that. Many people have come out in recent years, but it is really refreshing when you hear people who never had to come out because they grew up in a family home or circle of friends who embraced this from the get-go. It was not a thing. They could just date who they wanted and marry who they wanted. That is ideally where we want things to be at, but there are still people who have to come out. Counselling supports are very important because with the young people I have met in Clare Youth Service and other youth groups in the constituency, there is mental anguish for people at times and anxiety. Sometimes the eventual coming out is not as big a deal as they thought it was going to be, but they need a lot of support during that time.

More needs to be done to protect and support our sportspeople. Sport is wonderful. As a nation, we love our sports but too often there is slagging and jeering from the sidelines about all sorts of issues and personal issues on the pitch. Homophobic chants can be part of that, so, as a Government and as a society, we could do more to support gay people who are involved in sport at a very high level.

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am here in solidarity and in celebration, but also in concern. Pride is not just a parade, a flag or a month on the calendar. It is the living legacy of generations who fought for dignity, freedom and equality. The rights they fought for were so hard won, but as we have seen across Europe and beyond, those rights are frighteningly easy to lose. This year marks ten years since Ireland made history by voting yes to marriage equality on 22 May 2015 and becoming the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote. It was a moment of profound national pride, a triumph of compassion, courage and collective conviction. I remember that day vividly. I was proud to be Irish and proud that over 62% of us stood up to say love is love and that equality belongs to everyone. It was a declaration of allyship, fairness and hope. It has allowed me to attend the weddings of some of my closest friends to celebrate their love where they could stand in front of their friends and family and, legally and in love, commit to each other. I very much hope to attend many more.

Progress is not permanent, however. Rhetoric that I once believed had been relegated to the fringes is now re-emerging loudly and dangerously in mainstream discourse, both online and in person. What was once whispered is now shouted and what was once dismissed is now defended as reasonable concern. Homophobic and transphobic attacks are rising, not just in number but also in brutality and co-ordination. Such attacks are often carried out with impunity. These attacks represent real people - friends, neighbours and colleagues - targeted for who they are and who they love. The impact of these attacks is not only physical; it is also deeply psychological. Fear, burnout, anxiety and isolation are becoming daily reality for far too many in the LGBTQ+ community. Research from the RESIST project shows that online abuse is now a precursor to real-world aggression, with LGBTQ+ individuals and organisations facing sustained harassment, threats to employment and even attacks on their homes. These trends are not abstract but personal. They sow fear where there should be joy and fracture communities where there should be unity. They remind us that progress is not a guarantee but a responsibility.

Ten short years ago, I could not have foreseen that Pride festivals would be banned in EU member states such as Hungary, where new laws criminalise public LGBTQ+ expression. The Budapest Pride march was outlawed under the guise of child protection, with police authorised to identify and fine attendees. Despite this, on 28 June, well over 100,000 people marched defiantly, joined by 71 MEPs, including our own Maria Walsh, and Deputy O’Gorman. They stood proudly in protest. When Pride is threatened it is a bellwether for authoritarianism. When LGBTQ+ visibility is erased any voice can be next. Our Pride is a protective shield for all in our society and it must be protected.

As a Member of this House and a proud ally I believe it is more important now than ever to be vocal, visible and unambiguous in our support for people to live and love as they choose. The rainbow may be colourful but our stance must be clear, loud and proud. We must never become complacent. Pride is a protest as much as it is a celebration. It is a reminder of where we have been, the progress we have made and a call to vigilance in the context of what lies ahead. It is true that Ireland has made immense strides, but this progress cannot be taken for granted. Rights must be protected, policy strengthened and representation expanded. I want every young person struggling with their identity or facing hostility to know they are seen, they are valued and they belong. The Ireland we are building is one where no-one should have to hide or apologise for who they are. Let this Pride not only honour the trailblazers of the past but also challenge us to legislate, to educate and to advocate and to be loud and proud 365 days of the year.

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We welcome the progress secured by the LGBTQI+ community in recent years. The rights obtained were hard fought for over many decades by activists who refused to be deterred in their fight to be recognised as equal before the law. Despite the clear progress we have seen, in many areas the struggle for full LGBTQI+ equality is far from over. Many areas of inequality remain and more work is required in order to ensure that true equality is achieved. It is as important we have statements like this in 2025 as it has ever been. It is only fitting we have allocated time in the schedule to allow us to stand up and say what Pride is and what it means to us.

Pride is a movement close to my heart. In my first year as a county councillor in Louth in 2016, I cut the ribbon to officially start the first ever Drogheda Pride celebration and did so each year afterwards until this year. I have marched in Drogheda Pride’s parades, attended its events I was and am keen to show our LGBTQI+ family, friends and neighbours modern Ireland is friendly, welcoming and accepting. I campaigned for the “Yes” vote that the people enthusiastically gave in the marriage equality referendum in 2015. Friendships and connections were made with social justice campaigners at that time and these carried into the referendum to repeal the eighth, which resulted in another enthusiastic “Yes” from the people.

Some people may think the battles are all won and there is no need for Pride any more, but, unfortunately, that could not be further from the truth. In 2022, I put forward a motion to Louth County Council asking for a rainbow Pride pedestrian crossing in my hometown of Drogheda. We have seen them all over Ireland and throughout Europe, and other Deputies referred to those in their areas. I had the support of all other councillors from all parties and none and council officials informed me they were supportive of the rainbow Pride crossing. Councillors from Ardee and Dundalk asked for the same rainbow Pride crossings in their municipal districts too. We were waiting to hear from the then chief executive of Louth County Council about how and when we would proceed when they stopped answering our calls and emails. There was a stone wall of silence. The then chief executive said there was no agreement on providing the rainbow Pride crossings, which minutes of meetings proved false, and at a full county council meeting, she refused point-blank to allow any further discussion on the matter. This led the majority of Louth county councillors of all parties and none to walk out in protest. That was only a few years ago. It showed all those who followed that Pride is still needed.

There are many challenges facing the LGBTQI+ community, such as those relating to youth homelessness, mental health and violence. These are things we all need to redouble our efforts to address.

Pride seeks to address those issues as an unbelievably happy and positive social justice movement that is quite unique. Everyone who supports Pride should be proud of it. I know I am.

I am proud of the strides made by Drogheda Pride and Outcomers in offering awareness, integration and advocacy for LGBTQI+ communities throughout the wee county of Louth.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Two years ago, Ireland celebrated the 30th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality. We saw further incremental progress after that through the civil partnership process, which was a stepping stone to full marriage equality following the passing of the thirty-fourth amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. This year, we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the legislation implementing that amendment. What was once defined by others in society as shameful has become a growing and vibrant source of pride for members of the LGBTQI+ community.

As others have said, however, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. In Ireland, as in other parts of Europe, basic freedoms are under threat and hatred is on the rise. The evidence of that is sometimes recorded in the official statistics, sometimes hidden within other Garda statistics and, many times, unfortunately, it is not reported at all.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has done three surveys, conducted every five years, on the LGBT community in the EU. The findings make for interesting reading. The latest information, from last year, shows that while discrimination against what the agency describes as LGBTIQ people remains high, it is gradually declining in most European countries. Schools are dealing with LGBTIQ issues more positively and proactively and, in general, young people feel more supported by their teachers and peers. There is progress in most, but not all, countries. At the same time, bullying, harassment and violence have reached high levels, even in countries that like to pat themselves on the back for how progressive they apparently have been.

In this context, there are several key findings in the survey worth noting. The first relates to openness. One in two LGBTQI+ people within the European Union are now open about their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics. Unfortunately, however, most would still avoid holding hands with a same-sex partner in public for fear of being attacked. That is a sad indictment of how things are, including here in Ireland where many people feel similarly.

One in three people still face discrimination in their daily life because of who they are, which is a slight decrease from 2019. Such discrimination is not often reported in Ireland and, in Europe as a whole, only one in ten people report instances of it. One in ten survey respondents said they experienced violence in the five previous years. This is up on the 2019 figure and seems to show there is some sort of societal acceptance of this type of violence. More than one in three intersex people were attacked, which is shocking. One in two respondents reported being a victim at some stage of hate-motivated harassment, up from one in three in 2019. Two in three intersex and trans people were harassed.

More than two in three people, across all generations and in all EU countries, said they were bullied in school. This is a steep increase on the one in two figure in 2019. Schools are now more progressive and are addressing LGBT issues more often than previously. More than one in five LGBTIQ pupils, to again use the survey term, now say their school positively addresses issues raised.

As other speakers noted, mental health continues to be a major issue, with more than one three European respondents having contemplated suicide. More than half of trans, non-binary and gender diverse people say they have suicidal thoughts. One in four said they were forced to go through some form of conversion therapy practice to change their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. That might be much higher in certain countries. Only one in four of those surveyed considered that their government was combating prejudice and intolerance against LGBTIQ people, compared with one in three in 2019.

The survey reflects various experiences across Europe. Countries such as Hungary must be called out, as colleagues have done, for the Orbán Administration's political attempts to reverse fundamental human rights and freedom of expression for nothing more than populist political gain. Rights are also under threat in other countries. There is slight positive progress in countries such as Poland, where officials recently abolished what was described as the country's last remaining LGBT ideology-free zone. However, the freedoms restored following the most recent Polish election could equally be diminished in due course.

In that context, it was great to see tens of thousands of people defy Hungary's ban and take part in a Pride match in protest against Orbán and his collective. I congratulate the Irish elected representatives who were there on the day showing solidarity. The crackdown on Pride is part of an effort to curb democratic freedoms ahead of what will be one of the tighter elections in Hungary's recent history. The people, supported by Budapest's mayor, came in dignified unity as he urged them "calmly and boldly to stand together for freedom, dignity and equal rights". There was a record attendance for any such march, with four or five times the expected 40,000 attendees. Deputy O'Gorman mentioned a figure of 200,000, which I do not query. Of course, the protest segued into a mass demonstration against the Government but it showed the LGBTQI+ community in Hungary has many allies, as, indeed, does the community in Ireland. However, everyone will need to be vigilant in the face of a more blatant and fearless attempt to denigrate and dehumanise the community.

I wholeheartedly support the Government's LGBTQI+ inclusion strategy, which, as the Minister stated, covers the four pillars of safety, health and well-being, participation and inclusion and equality and non-discrimination. As the Minister of State, Deputy Butler poignantly added, there is also the pillar of compassion and dignity. I support inclusion and diversity. I support an Ireland where everyone is safe to be who they want to be, as long as they do not hurt anyone else in the process.

I also support freedom of speech and expression, even if I disagree with what someone else is saying. As a democrat, I believe it is possible for various policy issues to be debated without actively or otherwise encouraging hatred towards people because of their race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic origin, descent, disability, gender, sex characteristics or sexual orientation. It is not a either-or situation, but with freedom comes responsibility.

The Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024 was one step in protecting our citizens dealing with crimes motivated by hatred. We now need a clear definition of what constitutes hate speech. We must ensure marginalised groups are not targeted in word or deed just for being themselves and that hateful misinformation and disinformation are not allowed to be spread without consequences.

As others have stated, Pride is not just a celebration of identity; it is an ongoing and relentless protest for equality and acceptance. We must learn from the past, celebrate what has been achieved and never go back to where we were before, either here in Ireland, in Europe or especially in those many parts of the world where basic human rights are still denied to so many members of the LGBTQI+ community.

Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As we celebrate Pride Month and the ten-year anniversary of the marriage equality referendum, it is important to call out the bravery and activism of the LGBTQI+ community, their families, allies and campaigners. We can all recall the referendum ten years ago and the sense of sheer joy and jubilation when the result came through. The memory of seeing how much it meant to friends of mine will never leave me. I am sure the memories will never leave anybody who was part of that campaign.

There has been significant progress in this area, from the decriminalisation of homosexuality under Máire Geoghegan-Quinn as Minister for Justice to the civil partnership Act and, finally, the marriage equality referendum. I have probably used the word "finally" wrongly because that achievement should not be the final step. There must be a continuation of equality for all people in society, including LGBTQI+ people.

The referendum was not just about the referendum. It was about respect, dignity and love. It was about being seen as equal to one's neighbours, friends and family.

It is critical now more than ever to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community and all of those who are being vilified in society, particularly with the rise of hatred and the targeting of the LGBTQI+ community we are seeing online, including Members of this House who are members of that community.

As other Deputies have said this evening, what has been happening in Hungary is plain and simply wrong. It goes against the basic human rights and dignity of people in their own country. Rightfully, the Hungarian people took a stand against their Government.

The amount of hate speech we are seeing online and in public discourse needs to be called out, not only in this House and the Seanad, but in private conversations. When people make jokes or are a little bit more serious about it, it needs to be called out. We should not be afraid to do so.

It is important to go back and think about all of those people who are not here anymore but who fought to bring Ireland to the stage where we saw marriage equality. When I was in university in Maynooth, I joined the LGBT society as a straight man in order to be an ally to my friends. I think of Dean McCarron, a good friend of mine from Monaghan who is no longer with us. He campaigned vigorously during the marriage equality referendum and was present at the celebrations at Dublin Castle. I think of a particular photograph of him in which he is extremely happy. He is in my thoughts this evening as I speak in the Chamber.

Equality does not stop with the law. Rather, it lives in policy, community and respect. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that equality stretches out, not just within this House and in drafting legislation, but outside of it in any sector or society we may touch and the conversations we have. While we celebrate Pride month and the achievements of the LGBTQI+ community, we must not forget that equality does not have a finish line. Equality is a moving and tangible obstacle that we must strive towards in our daily lives. It is incumbent on all of us to continue to strive to ensure that what we do delivers equality for the LGBTQI+ community and all marginalised sectors of society.

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Both of the previous speakers mentioned allies. That is how I come to this debate also. One of the big decisions I made when I was elected as a city councillor in 2019 was that, where possible, I would attend, at the very least, Dublin Pride every single year. To my eternal shame, I never attended Pride before I became a councillor. As a public representative, I felt it important to continue to show allyship. That is why I am here today contributing to this debate. When I was Lord Mayor of Dublin, I had the enormous privilege of marching at the front of the Dublin Pride parade.

One of the amazing things about Pride for those who have not participated – and I encourage anyone to do so in their towns and villages, if they are not based in Dublin - is all of the empathy and kindness there on the day. It is a very human day in a way that is kind of hard to characterise or emulate. It is obviously a day of protest, as our former party leader, Leo Varadkar, used to always remind us. When you actually participate in it, however, you are surrounded by love, fun and a level of positivity that I am not sure is emulated in any other event that takes place across the country.

What struck me in particular on every occasion I have marched in Pride is the young people and their faces. When I think of the kind of Ireland we all live in, a lot of the young people who were at the Pride events I participated in, particularly when I was Lord Mayor, were maybe turning 17 or 18. Therefore, at least for their whole adult life, all they will know is a country that changed its Constitution for the better in the marriage equality referendum.

They are now faced with a new vista, however. There has been a lot of discussion in this Chamber about Hungary and other jurisdictions, but there is no denying that what is taking place across the world is having an impact in Ireland, too. We can be proud of the fact that when surveys are carried out, Ireland is often up there as one of the safest countries in the world for LGBTQ+ people. Equally, however, we know from studies that BeLonG To and Trinity College have done that nearly half of LGBTQ+ people feel unsafe holding hands in public, one in four have been physically attacked and 72% have faced verbal abuse. We know that social media has played a role in this toxicity.

I am often one of these people who is a strong advocate for free speech and will always defend people’s right to speak. We know, however, that the so-called free speech advocates often couch their language in free speech when in fact what they want to do is create a safe space for prejudice to thrive and for it to be okay to have the prejudiced discussions that might have been commonplace decades ago in our country but became quite socially unacceptable in the years after the marriage equality referendum. In some ways, those discussions are returning in an ugly way. More often than not, it is trans people who are particularly targeted. Discussions about trans people are traduced and reduced to triviality when often it is those very same people in their interactions in their daily lives who face way more prejudices and burdens than I as a straight person face or that most of the population faces.

It is just more important now than ever in this country, leaving aside what is taking place outside of this country, for all of us to remember the allyship that existed during the marriage equality referendum and the kinds of conversation that were taking place cross-generationally. Let us not forget those conversations in an era where it has become fashionable to talk about anti-woke. It has become fashionable to, in some ways, move away from a lot of the ideals that led us to the progressive country we now have. You are almost fearful of using the word “progressive”.

We, as Irish people, in our Irish nation and culture, need to promote what is Irish in my view, that is, community. At the bedrock of what was achieved in the marriage equality referendum was that sense of Irish community. We were the first country in the world to have a public vote that delivered marriage equality. That is because we are neighbourly and we talk and deliberate with one another, particularly in the context of referendum campaigns. At its heart, there is a compassion in Ireland that is unique. Let us not forget that as toxicity reigns across social media and with what is taking place in the world. Those of us who can be allies should stand up and be allies.

Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As a mother of a trans son, I wish to say loud and clear that my heart bursts with pride, not only because he is my son but because in the face of social stigma, misinformation, fear for his safety and a world that often misunderstands or fears difference, he has remained true to himself. He is the bravest person I know and, like many in this country, he does not even realise it. He does not even realise how courageous he is because in Ireland today, being true to yourself takes courage. It should not have to, though. The hard truth is that in this State, being brave is not enough because the State is failing trans people. The HSE currently runs just one gender identity clinic in Dublin. As a result, more than 1,500 people are now waiting just to be seen. We are talking about some three to four years for a first appointment. Even the HSE has said that these delays are unacceptably long and have caused significant distress. Words are not enough. What our people need is action. Let us call it what it is, namely, a disgrace.

Some of our young people are being forced to DIY their own healthcare without medical support. That is not choice; that is desperation. This country and Government have turned their backs on them. That is not care, equality or a republic that cherishes all of its children equally. We need an Ireland of equals, one where our public services are shaped by compassion rather than crisis, where no person has to risk their life to get the care they deserve.

We need real investment, a fully funded, accessible and compassionate healthcare system which actually serves the people, not leaves them behind. We need fact-based, honest conversations in our media, schools and around the kitchen table, because that is how we make real change. There is still too much fear, silence and shame being pushed on the LGBTQI+ community. Too many of our children are made to feel that something is wrong with them, when there is not.

As one parent, Karen, so powerfully asked, when our kids leave the house, will they be attacked, and when they stay at home, are they becoming too isolated? These are real fears for real families in 2025, but we are not powerless. Since the 1970s, when the first LGBT+ group was formed in Trinity, to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the 1990s, to marriage equality, we have made progress, but let us be clear that we still have a long way to go. Ní neart go cur le chéile. We are stronger together and we must go further. We will not stop until we build an Ireland where LGBTQI+ people feel not just safe and not just tolerated, but respected, not just included, but truly loved and valued for who they are. That is the kind of place that I want for my son and for everyone else so that they feel that they belong. For the moment, Pride is their safe place.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Ar dtús, is mian liom míle buíochas a rá leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Butler, for the passionate way in which she spoke. It has been a good debate about the pride that our Government shows. Pride is not just a celebration. It is a call to action. As we mark it here, we must be clear that there is no room for complacency in Ireland. I am really proud to be in the Dáil, listening from my office and since I have been in the Chamber, to how everyone has spoken about their personal experience and lives, and how we need to stand up to those who are trying to discriminate and push the people in our society down.

Around the world, we see co-ordinated attacks. Multiple Members here spoke about Hungary and what just happened to the LGBTQI+ organisation there. Often, it is part of a broader assault on democracy, equality and dignity. Ireland must not only resist those forces but we must lead by example. I mentioned here three months ago that key stakeholders are struggling to engage with the Department of Health. I ask the Minister of State to ask for an update on the Taoiseach meeting the key stakeholders regarding the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act 2024, as it disproportionately impacts LGBTQI+ families. We cannot allow legislation to become a barrier to recognition.

I speak to the Minister of State from a personal background. My sister and her wife are expecting their first child. They are lucky to have conceived that child in Ireland, but if that child had been conceived outside Ireland, my sister's wife would not be recognised as a parent. I raised this months ago but the LGBT+ parents' alliance has still not had the opportunity to meet the Taoiseach. I appeal to the Minister of State to ask the Taoiseach to try to get that meeting over the line. It is not good enough and I ask that it be done. Today, I am asking the Government in the spirit of Bród and Pride that we commit to a published, independent equality audit of the assisted human reproduction legislation and engage directly with the parenting alliance. It has emailed the Department, and it is very important.

On another issue, the Department of Health needs to publish clear timelines for both amending the legislation and the commencement of the Act. I am delighted to support a programme for Government that mentions so much for this community but we need a whole-of-Government approach. The national LGBTQI+ inclusion strategy outlines a path forward. Let us follow it. We all know and I have heard across the Chamber today, which I am delighted about, that we need a comprehensive, trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy with no loopholes. We need the immediate enactment of the disregard scheme to finally remove the historic criminal convictions imposed on them since 1993.

The new trans healthcare model which multiple Deputies have raised today, based on informed consent, will be transformative for the community. This is about dignity, rights and basic decency. We have come so far as a country, but we are not done. In the spirit of the month of Pride, we need to do the best we can. We need to bring in legislation that creates real, meaningful and lasting change. I look forward to meeting my new niece.

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone who contributed to this important discussion. It seems astonishing that it was not until 1993 and the passing of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 that homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland. Prior to that, people across the country risked prison for simply being themselves. Attitudes towards individuals and couples who did not fit conventional stereotypes were hostile and indeed the first Pride parade only took place in 1983. It was not the affirming and positive event that we know it is today. That parade saw some 400 people march from Liberty Hall to Fairview Park in Dublin to highlight violence against members of their community, including 31-year-old Declan Flynn, who died following a homophobic attack in Fairview Park the previous September.

Thankfully, Irish society has moved on, but things are not yet where they should be. Just last weekend, thousands attended the annual trans and intersex Pride march through Dublin city centre to highlight concerns affecting their community. As noted in The Irish Times, an Indian member of Queer Asian Pride Ireland who addressed the crowd but did not wish to be identified, said:

every single day for trans people it's so, so difficult to live our daily lives whether in university, at workplaces, in hospital, wherever it is.

We have been spat at, yelled at. I have been egged. I have been mocked so many times, just walking on the street. I am visibly queer and visibly trans and you see the colour of my skin and I can't tell you where the hate is coming from whether it is transphobia, homophobia or whether it is racism.

We note that progress has been made but we cannot pretend that everything is as it should be. As mentioned in the opening remarks of the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley, this year marks a hugely important milestone for both the LGBTQI+ community and Irish history, which is the tenth anniversary of the marriage equality referendum. The referendum was not only a critical step along the way to achieving equality for our LGBTQI+ citizens but one which embodied the type of country so many of us wanted to be part of: a kind, understanding and progressive country which values all of its citizens equally.

Dublin Pride is now one of the biggest annual events in the country. It has become a vital part of our social landscape and is a measure of how far Ireland has come in progressing LGBTQI+ visibility. This year, more than 12,000 participants marched in the parade from across more than 280 different organisations. Pride events take place across the country and play a vital role in providing LGBTQI+ people in Ireland with a platform to be visible. It fosters a sense of community and belonging, particularly for those in rural areas or conservative communities. Pride events are important because they celebrate and reflect on the progress made. They support those who are still struggling and they push for LGBTQI+ equality and inclusion in all facets of our society.

We should remember that the referendum came at the end of a long and difficult journey. For decades, LGBTQI+ people in Ireland were unseen, marginalised and criminalised. For far too long, the State failed to protect its LGBTQI+ citizens. I am particularly conscious as I stand in this Chamber of the work of those Oireachtas Members who did so much to pave the way for equality for LGBTQI+ people in our country. As previously mentioned, homosexuality was decriminalised here in 1993 following a long and difficult legal battle led by Senator David Norris and others. In 2006, the High Court case of Katherine Zappone and the late Ann Louise Gilligan, who sought to have their Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland, was one of the first major events in the debate on the recognition of same-sex marriage in Ireland. In 2010, the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 marked a further step forward, but it fell short of full equality, and crucially, it did not provide provisions for children of same-sex couples. Couples in committed relationships were still denied the recognition and rights that others took for granted, and so the call for marriage equality grew louder, led by brave campaigners, community organisations, families and individuals who shared their stories and truths.

The referendum campaign was unlike any we had seen before. It was deeply personal, deeply emotional, and grounded in hope. We all remember the faces, the voices, and the energy of that campaign, the posters in windows, the queues at airports as people flew home to vote, and the conversations on doorsteps and around kitchen tables. It was a national movement built on empathy and driven by a belief in fairness. So, on that day in May, ten years ago, Ireland responded with extraordinary unity. Ireland showed the world what can be done when a nation comes together and shows compassion and understanding for our fellow citizens.

It was not only a legal victory, but also a cultural one. It told the world who we are and what we stand for. That, in this small island, one shaped by silence and shame, there was now space for inclusion, love, and pride. That moment ten years ago sparked momentous social transformation in our country. Ireland is increasingly seen as an emblem of equality, democracy, and inclusion; a country with a proud record as a champion of human rights and we must not lose sight of this vision.

We see attempts globally to roll back on hard-won progress, endangering the rights and the lives of LGBTQI+ people. We must act collectively to protect and promote LGBTQI+ people's equality and rights, in the knowledge and understanding that all human rights should be upheld together. The lessons of the marriage equality campaign should reignite our commitment to work together collaboratively, in solidarity, to counter these pushbacks.

The passage of the marriage equality referendum a decade ago demonstrated that societal change can occur without societal upheaval. In fact, in the days and years since the referendum, I believe Ireland has become a more accepting and welcoming place than before. We must ensure this vision endures and that Ireland continues to be seen as a symbol of equality, democracy, and inclusion. Our commitment to equality must remain steadfast.

We in government acknowledge the challenges the LGBTQI+ community continues to face and we remain deeply committed to the promotion and the protection of LGBTQI+ equality. We will stand firm in the face of rising hate and must ensure that our message of solidarity is loud and clear.

As mentioned earlier, the new national LGBTQI+ inclusion strategy is the tool by which this Government has agreed to tackle these issues. It will provide a roadmap towards equality for LGBTQI+ people in Ireland over the coming years and reflect the determination of Government Departments and State agencies to work together to better the lives of LGBTQI+ people. This whole-of-government strategy seeks to build on the successes and the achievements of the inaugural strategies and deliver on the key actions to address the continuing challenges LGBTQI+ people face. The strategy has been shaped by reflections and learnings from the implementation of both the LGBTI+ and national youth strategy and the national LGBTI+ inclusion strategy. It is underpinned by human rights principles and is guided by Ireland's international human rights commitments. It is grounded in the voices and the experiences of the LGBTQI+ community.

Listening to intersectional voices in particular has supported the strategy in its approach of addressing the specific needs of the most marginalised people in Ireland. Implementation of the strategy is a programme for Government commitment, a transparent implementation structure, and the publication of annual reports will allow for greater accountability for the delivery of change.

While it is important to celebrate Pride and acknowledge the achievements made, we cannot be complacent. We are not at the end of our journey to equality. LGBTQI+ people still face discrimination, mental health challenges, and threats, especially trans people, young people, and those in marginalised communities. We must continue to defend the rights that have been won and to advance those still denied. We in government must ensure our schools are safe for every child. We must ensure our healthcare system meets the needs of every person. We must stand up against hate wherever it festers, whether online, on our streets, or in our politics and we must be vigilant because progress is not inevitable.

In many parts of the world, LGBTQI+ rights are being rolled back. Rights we might have thought secure are now under attack. We must not let that happen here. The Government is committed to building an Ireland where everyone is safe, seen, and supported. The rainbow flag still flies, not just as a symbol of pride, but as a call to action. Let us answer that call with the same hope, the same decency, and solidarity that carried us to that historic day ten years ago.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I listened carefully to all those statements. They were delivered with passion and commitment. They were very constructive and interesting, with an eye on the future and not on the past.