Human Rights Issues
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Neale Richmond (FG), Dublin Rathdown

To make it abundantly clear, every person, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic, is entitled to equality, dignity and the full enjoyment of their human rights. Being LGBTQI+, forming an association and defending rights are not crimes and should never be crimes. Ireland remains in full solidarity with LGBTQI+ persons and their allies globally, particularly in Türkiye right now.
Over the past 18 months of my work in this current role, I have had the distinct displeasure of having to directly confront Ministers from countries such as Uganda and Liberia, which have initiated and maintained blatant discriminatory legislation that is absolutely abhorrent. Unfortunately, as the Deputy rightly said at the outset, this is part of a wider trend. We in Ireland have a very dark history in terms of equality, and we have to admit to that. We celebrate ten years of marriage equality this year, which is great, but we also have to recognise that we are less than 30 years on from the decriminalisation of homosexuality. What came before that in a very dark, troubling period for all of us.
That is why Ireland’s commitment in this regard is underlined by our co-ordinated alignment last week with actions affirming our concern both in Ankara and at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. We will continue to monitor developments and raise our concerns with relevant interlocutors from Türkiye and EU member states and at other multilateral fora. As I mentioned, I raised this at the United Nations last week. We are running for a seat on the Human Rights Council. We will be elected to that in January, and we will make sure that two-year term will be defined by standing up for the rights not just of minorities more generally, but of our brothers, our sisters and our friends in the LGBTQI+ community who are, worryingly, seeing backsliding globally that simply cannot be allowed to happen in Türkiye or anywhere else.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29