Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I object to the Order of Business and request that No. 4 on the Order Paper be taken with debate. That is the motion regarding the establishment of a special committee on gender equality. This summer, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth launched a consultation seeking the public's view on a review of the Equality Acts. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m, tomorrow and everyone should make their voices heard.

There is significant concern among parents as to the presence of harmful ideological beliefs being taught in our schools, having been introduced by political lobby groups. The Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, LGBT+ Teachers' Group has resources that introduce trans ideology to junior infants - children as young as four years old. The training video shows a teacher telling a class that a boy can change into a girl and that a girl can change into a boy. At any level of biological reality this is simply not true. Teaching this to young children who lack the critical thinking ability to assess the claim is the textbook definition of "indoctrination" and disrupts a critical developmental stage when children need certainty and consistency in their lives. It is intellectual abuse en masseof a captive and impressionable audience who trust the adults in charge of them.

The INTO LGBT+ Teachers' Group, BeLonG To and ShoutOut have been allowed to bring harmful and inappropriate resources, interventions and programmes into school. The fruits of such activities were readily seen last month when an Educate Together secondary school displayed a poster that stated lesbians are non-men attracted to non-men. Why are we so afraid of the word "woman"? I fear for our children, particularly young girls who are the future women of this country and who have been given the short end of the stick by these organisations achieving their political goals. This is a very important issue for debate in this House and we would welcome it.