Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to be associated with the tributes to Mr. Donal Hickey, who we would all agree has been a friendly and helpful presence in this House over the years. I hope he will enjoy good health and be able to spend both time and money ad multos annosin his years of retirement. I also wish to be associated with the expressions of sorrow for the former Member, Mr. John Browne. My sympathies also go to his son, Fergal, and the family.

I was listening to Ms Arlene Foster on the radio this morning. Given her position and the goals she wishes to protect and obtain, I was quite struck by the reasonableness of her tone and perspective. The history books may be kinder to the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, than many of us have been tempted to be. Many people calculated some time ago that a no-deal Brexit would not take place, and if the party made that calculation, it would have the best of both worlds in staying with Brexiteers while being quite comfortable in the knowledge that way end up with a much softer Brexit than even Prime Minister May's plan entails. I am hopeful of that but time will tell.

One of the Brexiteers, Mr. Jacob Rees-Mogg, used the term "terminological inexactitude" recently, although he was not the first to use it. This was when the word "lie" was considered to be unparliamentary. It struck me while listening to my friend and colleague, Senator Warfield, that perhaps terminological or even "opinionological" inexactitude might serve his purposes in describing the Taoiseach's characterisation of Sinn Féin policy. I listened to Senator Warfield yesterday speaking about conversion therapy, an area into which many people fear to wade. With issues such as that, the highest value comes from what people want, provided it does not do harm. I do not know enough about it at this stage but if it can be demonstrated that this is harmful to people, there is a very good case to make it unlawful. If it cannot be shown to be harmful to people, we are back into the realm of individual choice. I say this because in these Houses we do not speak enough about the importance of an evidence base for proposals. I hope that if it is in the area raised by Senator Warfield or the very fraught and difficult area of transgender persons' rights and needs, we look honestly at the current evidence.

Many parents who I know are quite concerned about what is taught in schools in the name of equality with respect to transgender issues and they question whether children's best interests are being served by what is now often proposed. I do not know the answers to those questions but we have a better chance of getting those answers if we insist that anything we call for has a sound evidence base. As legislators, we have a particular responsibility in this respect. Perhaps we could make progress in this House on such matters by using the Seanad as a forum to establish a precise evidence base. I am not sure that our committees are serving us sufficiently in considering issues from an actual evidence base. The Seanad could have a solid and significant input in that space.