Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All of us in the Seanad and the Dáil have had much communication from people and proponents against the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022. Some are well-meaning and others are not but for many people, there is a huge feeling that we need to properly debate this Bill.

The House should be used as a forum to deliver legislation on racism and hate crime. There is definitely more of it around as we have more people coming into our communities. Our colleague last week gave a picture of how she was affected by racism. That is just not on and it must be stamped out.

An interesting letter stemming from the hate crime Bill was sent today by our colleague, Senator McDowell, to the Minister for Justice asking him to confirm whether transgender is a new gender under Irish law. That is a big question. It is really important that we have a debate in the House on gender. Civil society and the sporting world are much further on than we are. For instance, the Dublin marathon now has a non-binary section, as do other international marathons, which allows more people to compete.

We are very good in this House at having a respectful debate. Perhaps this is the House to have a debate on gender in society and gender in sport in a really dignified way. Many people, including myself, are unsure of the language we are all meant to be using when it comes to gender. We could really lead the way in ensuring there is dignity and respect in this sphere.