Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would love to be able to use some of the very eloquent words that have been used here today in some of the very moving speeches. All I can really say is that puberty is the most confusing time in one’s life. It is a long time ago since I went through puberty but I still remember it and it will haunt me to the grave. Could one imagine being forced to come to that age in life in a gender that is not one’s recognised gender?

There has been much talk today about provisions for people up to the age of 16. Thank God for the media today and the speed at which information comes to us. I can inform the Minister that right now in Sweden it is being planned to split gender recognition into two areas, legal gender recognition and medical treatment. The main points are the separation of the legal and the medical into two different laws. Individuals will be able to get a legal change of gender at 15 or from the age of 12 for children with parental consent. The gender reassignment scheme is allowed from the age of 15 and for intersex children from under 12.

I had huge difficulty with this entire subject when first confronted by it. I remember discussing the matter with my wife who is a children’s nurse. She explained to me that from time to time children are born and it is far from clear what gender they are. A consultant or other doctor steps in and makes a decision and the child is pumped with hormones in order to make the child whatever that person said they were. We must be extremely careful. What we are doing with the Bill is putting barriers and constraints around the type of case Senator van Turnhout adverted to, where everybody, including the dogs in the streets, agree that a child has been misgendered and wants to trans. The parents want it to happen. One could ask why we want to force them to go through puberty to the age of 16 before they can make a decision. I remember puberty and the experience will follow me to the grave. I challenge anyone present to say it did not drive them insane also.