A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leat as ucht an deis seo a thabhairt dom. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the House on Pride. It is a time of celebration, a time of reflection and a time of renewed commitment. Pride is not merely a festival; it is a living reminder of courage, resistance and the enduring pursuit of dignity for LGBTIQ+ people. It acts as a reminder of the work still to do to allow the LGBTIQ+ community to live openly and freely without fear of discrimination or hatred. Throughout Ireland, many events will take place for Pride throughout designated days in June and July and, as always, I look forward to those events in my home constituency of Kerry in the coming weeks. However, the impact reaches far beyond just one singular day in any part of the country. It is inspiring to see the expansion of Pride festivals across Ireland, particularly in rural areas, and I warmly welcome their continued growth year after year. In Ireland we often speak of progress, and rightly so. We have travelled a remarkable distance in a relatively short time. The marriage equality referendum in 2015 changed Ireland in so many profound ways. There is so much to celebrate in terms of the path to equality for the LGBTIQ+ community since that remarkable day. Ireland has in many ways become an example of what social change can look like when driven by compassion, activism and active engagement with the Government. Last year I launched the national LGBTIQ+ inclusion strategy 2024-2028 and its associated first two-year action plan. The strategy aims to promote and respect the right of LGBTIQ+ people to live their lives safely, free of harassment and free of violence. This is by means of several prevention and protection measures. The strategy incorporates a stronger outcomes-focused approach and a transparent implementation structure. It features achievable actions and clear performance indicators. It has adopted a more focused approach to ensure that actions are realistic and achievable while still being ambitious. The pillars on which the strategy is built are: safety; health and well-being; participation and inclusion; and equality and non-discrimination. These pillars seek to directly confront the continuing challenges faced by LGBTIQ+ people today. The actions through which the strategy is being implemented reflect the determination of the whole of government and State agencies to work together to that end. Since the launch of the strategy in June 2025, Departments and agencies have been advancing a range of actions set out in the first action plan. While progress takes time, important and promising work is taking place under all four pillars. As my colleagues will be aware, I submitted a memorandum for Government for information to Cabinet on 23 June in relation to the inaugural national LGBTIQ+ inclusion strategy. The report marks an important milestone in our shared commitment to building a more equal, a more inclusive and a more respectful society, a society where every single person can live with dignity, safety and full participation. The drafting of this inaugural report not only provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress achieved over the past year but also strengthens our determination to address the challenges that remain. The safety pillar includes several prevention and protection measures to promote and respect the right of LGBTIQ+ people to live their lives safely, free of harassment and, as I have said, violence. Coimisiún na Meán's online safety code came into full effect in July 2025, thereby strengthening protections against harmful content, including harassment and abusive remarks directed against LGBTIQ+ people. An Coimisiún has also made strong progress on sector-wide equality and diversity supports and the development of gender equality, diversity and inclusion standards. Local community safety partnerships were established under the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024, which commenced in 2025. These partnerships represent a significant step towards a more collaborative, responsive and locally driven model of community safety. An Garda Síochána has continued to invest in its network of Garda diversity officers. These officers are trained and supported to actively engage with and attend to the concerns of minority, diverse and hard-to-reach communities. They aim to provide reassurance, build trust and extend the accessibility of the Garda service. A review of the Garda diversity officers' network took place in November 2025, and workshops were carried out for 12 Garda divisions. This added an additional 150 officers to the network, bringing the current number of Garda diversity officers to 666. Progress under the health and well-being pillar shows increased investment in strengthening mental health supports for LGBTIQ+ people. The Mental Health Commission developed a guidance document for staff working in mental health services on the care and treatment of LGBTIQ+ people and launched it in 2025. This progress is essential because research has shown that LGBTIQ+ people can face higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress. A key achievement under the national inclusion strategy was the establishment of the LGBTIQ+ community services fund. This fund provides vital funding for initiatives that promote inclusion, protect rights and improve the quality of life and well-being for members of the LGBTIQ+ community. It helps them to participate fully in Ireland's social, economic, cultural and political life. The fund supports the establishment and enhancement of safe spaces in their many forms across the country. The importance of these safe spaces cannot be overestimated. They allow for the creation of connection, solidarity and a sense of belonging. Today I was delighted to announce that 52 projects are to receive funding under the 2026 community services funding call. Through the fund, a total of €1.8 million will be made available to support organisations to deliver projects at national, regional and local levels. This support will help ensure that LGBTIQ+ individuals across Ireland can access these vital services and continue to flourish within their own communities. Successful projects include assisting LGBTIQ+ people living in rural communities to access safe spaces, providing supports to older and disabled LGBTIQ+ people and strengthening community and counselling supports. Since 2020 over €9 million in funding has been provided to 231 projects. The amount of funding available under the fund has increased annually since 2020, indicating the importance of this funding both to the Government and to the wider community. I thank the community for its continued engagement with the community services fund over the past six years. Notable achievements have been made under the participation and inclusion pillar. This reflects strong efforts to ensure that LGBTIQ+ voices are heard as part of the relevant strategy and policy development and are embedded across national youth engagement structures. LGBTIQ+ people are now represented within Youth Ireland's governance structures, and work is ongoing to ensure their inclusion in wider Government consultations. Under the strategy, the first annual LGBTIQ+ forum was successfully held in April of this year. The event brought together representatives, organisations, civil society, public bodies and colleagues from across Government Departments. The forum was established to showcase examples of best practice, provide an opportunity to ask questions on implementation of the strategy and to feed back directly to the steering committee that oversees the strategy. I acknowledge the importance and the value of the forum. It brings together people with lived experience, community organisations and public bodies to talk openly about what is working and, importantly, what still needs to change. Personal insights and experiences are essential to shaping better outcomes. The strategy only works if it leads to real change, manifest change in people's lives. That is why the work done at the forum discussing the implementation of the strategy as it relates to the community and identifying the most important actions for the second action plan was so valuable. It illustrates how we in government remain committed to working in partnership with LGBTIQ+ people. We know that progress requires listening, respect and genuine collaboration. As we approach our Presidency of the European Union, we have chosen to showcase and uphold the values of the Union, values founded on the respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. This choice once again confirms our Government's commitment to creating an equal society. Now more than ever, the EU needs to defend and vindicate those values within Europe and globally. The Irish Presidency will seek to strengthen the EU's approach to equality, social inclusion, non-discrimination and the protection of the rights of minorities in line with the renewed Union of equality strategies. Ireland will use the EU Presidency to advance LGBTIQ+ equality and inclusion. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality will host a high-level conference on non-discrimination on 6 October 2026. The conference will offer an opportunity to highlight achievement across key policy areas while considering the varying levels of progress towards advancing more and more equality across the EU, ensuring there are areas of interest for a broader audience. The policy areas considered at the conference will align closely with the Equality Strategy 2026-2030. One area that will be explored is LGBTIQ+ equality across the lifecycle, looking at supporting young LGBTIQ+ people and their families, with a particular emphasis on the digital environment, and examining the challenges faced by older people. The event will gather national governments, EU institutions, international organisations and LGBTIQ+ civil society representatives among others to discuss progress and challenges. A meeting of the expert group on LGBTIQ+ equality will follow the conference. The expert group is composed of government experts nominated by member states to support and monitor progress and the protection of people's rights in the member states. Ireland is also supporting a further conference in October as a Presidency-associated event. The ILGA-Europe annual conference is the largest gathering of LGBTIQ+ activists, organisations and allies in Europe and central Asia. It brings together around 400 participants each year for several days of strategy-building, networking, knowledge-sharing and decision-making. We must be mindful that equality is not a single destination; it is a continuous journey, and one that we must remain committed to. As a Government, we must continue working to build an Ireland where diversity is embraced, where equality is not an aspiration but a lived reality for all citizens. Pride is a moment to look forward, not just a moment to look back, to reflect on the work still to be done to combat discrimination, to ensure our schools, services and workplaces are inclusive for all and, most importantly, to show the LGBTIQ+ community that we stand in solidarity with them and that we will rise to meet the challenges they continue to face.

Sentiment score: 0.43