Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Everybody is welcome to this. However, as I said during the surrogacy legislation, it would be a sad day if we had to exclude certain points that we are making here as elected representatives because of who might be sitting in the Public Gallery. Everybody deserves respect but those in the Public Gallery are here to listen to what the parliamentarians have to say, not the other way around. We hear them when they are lobbying and then we come in to legislate, if we get a chance.

My point is that the Government has not been consulting. The Minister may correct me if I am wrong but I saw a report in recent days that, when asked about what she was going to do on the gender definition, she said we will wait to see what is brought in. The Minister may correct me if she did not that. Clearly, to my knowledge at least, she has made no attempt to deal with any of the people who expressed concerns in this Chamber on Second Stage about the problem with the gender issue.

On that occasion, I did not mention the 2017 victim of crimes Act and the distinction between gender and gender identity and expression. I do not know whether the Minister had a chance to give that consideration. Having regard to what Senator McDowell was saying, she should take that on board and say that there is a precedent here that we can use without victimising anybody. In that way, a great deal of controversy is removed and the concerns of parents are allayed because this stuff influences what is going to happen in schools. This is the next point I want to make to illustrate why that is the case.

The short email to Deputy Bruton concludes by stating, "An Garda Síochána's diversity and integration strategy and PULSE systems contain similar concepts of gender in its discriminatory motives. We cannot be in a situation whereby, operationally, the Garda has a wide, I am saying "so-called", progressive understanding of a concept such as gender but the legislation dealing with offences against a protected group of persons is far more restrictive." What the Minister is saying is that because the Garda has chosen to be expansive about what gender means and to confuse gender expression and identity which is subjective, somehow the law must follow. It is supposed to be the other way around. The Legislature is supposed to set the rules and the Garda is supposed to implement the law.

The Minister also mentioned, by the way, that the Garda says it is necessary. I would be grateful for her help on that matter. Where has it been said by the Garda that this definition of gender is necessary in the law? It is for the legislature, for Oireachtas Éireann, to set the tone for what the Garda must do and must implement.

Here is the giveaway. The Minister says that this has nothing to do with other pieces of legislation. She says, "Following a review of the Equality Act that is currently being undertaken by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, definitions used in the Bill may be reconsidered to ensure consistency in definitions across the Statute Book." To me, this sounds as though the Minister is saying, "Yes, we intend to revisit all these definitions of gender across the Statute Book." It sounds as though she is admitting there that she is laying the groundwork for this and this is the first shot of the gun. The Minister cannot tell us here that there is nothing to see here, that this only applies to this legislation, when she is telling people in her own party that this is part of a wider revisiting of the meaning of gender. Correct me if I am wrong but that has blown the gaff on her. The concern people have is that there is this agenda going on. We saw this in the referendums as well. The Minister mentioned the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. We had the same problem in the referendums with ideological language leading to a badly-worded amendment that was roundly rejected by the people. That ideological language was rooted in this agenda to redefine gender.

If gender is redefined, this puts pressure on the system. It puts pressure on the curriculum. It bolsters those who want to imbue in children from an early age that if they are not comfortable in their gender identity that they may actually be a different gender. That has many medical professionals worried. The Minister knows about the controversies in relation to puberty blockers-----