Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I make no apologies to my friend, the Minister of State, for choosing my own forum in which to ventilate the major problems with what the Government is doing by twisting gender and gender identity.It has the HSE pretending that men can have babies and breast-feed. It leads to the erasure of women as men with dysphoria lay claim to women's spaces.

In our playschools and schools, the normal securing of children's certainty of their personal identity at an early age could be turned upside down. They are being told fairy tales. I recently heard about a school in Galway where a teacher invited the children to state which gender identity they had. Introducing this confusion into children's lives is not what the Government should be doing or supporting. The Minister of State cannot hide behind the fact that she is not happy that I was not present to debate in the forum she chose, when I have chosen my own forums very frequently and repeatedly. Considering that people like Senator Keogan were kept off the gender committee, it is ironic indeed. The fact is that there is a problem. There are children with gender dysphoria, not trans children. We have got to deal with that problem in a way that does not turn reality on its head but deals with the crisis of dysphoria. When you hear the worries of people like Professor Donal O'Shea, you realise it is very clear that the Government is on board with a radical agenda, has not been up-front with the Irish people and will get increasing pushback. It has major implications for what the Government proposes to do in any referendum that tampers with the meaning of gender.