Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I should be standing here full of joy as this has been a long time coming. People here have sat through every moment and hour of the debate full of expectations and hope. What we have delivered is far from their expectations.In fairness to the Minister of State, it is paradoxical to tell him he has done a great job bringing it this far.

However, there are heavy hearts in this room tonight. People came here expecting great things but, as I warned them a month ago, we were never going to get everything we wanted. As I said in my opening remarks, it portrays a basic ignorance of what gender identity and the sovereign choice of an applicant mean. It portrays a deep distrust that transgender persons know their own minds and require the external opinion of medical specialists to identify their gender. In the case of parents, it does not trust their ability to know their own children, and in the case of children it renders them voiceless. The Bill is deeply paternalistic by imposing on people what is judged by policy makers, who have no experience of transgender issues, to be objectively good for them. The Minister and I know this; we have both spoken about it. We could not possibly understand what it means to be transgender.

The Bill is out of sync with the principles of liberal society and Mill's harm principle, which states that the right of the state to limit people's liberty is only justifiable to prevent harm to other people. The Bill does not apply an essential rights-based approach, which enables rights holders to have the full enjoyment of the rights to which they are entitled. Does the Minister of State, I or anybody else believe that the State knows an individual's best interest better than the individual himself or herself? Who better to promote the interests of transgender persons than transgender persons? However, we do not listen and respond accordingly, at least not in full.

If transgender voices had been heeded over the last month there would not have been 200 people protesting outside Leinster House last Saturday, the first protest in what will be a strong campaign for justice. The campaign demands nothing more than the entitlement for people to live and be accepted and legally recognised as they are. This legislation has been a long time coming, but it must not be too late. The State must redress the injustice done and do it quickly. No words from me can say better than what Claire Farrell said last Saturday, "Please give me the opportunity to leave this world as the person I am." There is no counter argument to this call for full, unfettered autonomy and self determination.

I feel extremely emotional as we draw this debate to a close. In a way we have had a great success today, but at the same time we have had a tremendous failure. I feel deeply sorry for the people in the Visitors Gallery tonight who had expected great things from us but who will walk away with heavy hearts. The Minister of State has done the best he can and I commend him for that. I am delighted that this Bill will pass. Alas and alack, like so many other things in this country, it will be revisited time and again. It will be tweaked, moved around and discussed, but people will shy away from it when it comes due for review. Not everybody is as brave and as strong as the Minister of State and the Tánaiste. Unfortunately, when the review time comes around I do not know whether either the Minister or I will be in this House, or any other House in this building. If the Minister of State is here, he will drive it as best he can and if I am here, I will also drive the review and try to bring the Bill closer to what our guests in the Visitors Gallery believe they sought.

I compliment all of my colleagues who spoke on the Bill. None said anything against it. I compliment the Minister of State for bringing it to the House.