Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he hopes Ireland can avoid the “kind of culture wars” seen in other countries around educating children about transgender issues.
Mr Varadkar said the last thing the majority of people want is “a big row and a big fight between people who are woke and people who are anti-woke”.
The Taoiseach was responding to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín in the Dáil on Tuesday, who noted that Mr Varadkar had said children aged nine and ten-years-old should be taught about “transgenderism” and said this “shocked many people”.
Mr Tóibín said two recent polls suggested that the majority of people believe children in primary school are too young to be taught about such issues.
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“Everybody wants to have compassion at the heart of the education system but we also need common sense,” the Meath West TD said.
“We have a duty of care for children. Parental choice and consent must also be components of the education system. Gender dysphoria is not easy. Children should be treated with compassion and support but it must be evidence-based. There is a growing number of experts who have said that the approach of this Government on these issues is not evidence-based.”
Mr Tóibín asked if the Taoiseach’s Department or the Department of Education carried out any research on the effect on primary school children of “delivering material on transgenderism in the classroom”.
In response, Mr Varadkar said the Aontú leader had referred to “transgenderism” and was not sure what he meant by the term.
“It is not an ideology nor a political philosophy,” he said. “Trans people are people and they exist.”
The Fine Gael leader said he knew people who were trans and that trans people have always existed but “maybe not acknowledged”.
“I think that when it comes to education, when it comes to children, parents and schools have a duty to inform young people about the world around them as it is,” he said.
“Sooner or later, a young person is going to run into somebody who’s trans or meet somebody who’s trans. Isn’t it better that they’ve heard about it from their parents or from their teachers so they’re prepared? It just seems like common sense to me.
“It doesn’t have to be a value judgement, it doesn’t have to challenge anyone’s religious beliefs, it doesn’t have to threaten anyone’s feelings on this matter.
“It just makes sense to me that if you want to look out for children and prepare them for life and prepare them for the world around them, you don’t shield them from the reality of people and how they live their lives.”
Mr Varadkar said children were “extraordinarily curious” and there had to be an approach that “makes sense and teaches people about the reality of the world around them”.
“I do really hope when it comes to this whole debate that we can all agree to try and avoid the kind of culture wars that we’ve seen in other countries around the trans issue,” he added.
“The last thing the vast majority of people want in this country is a big row and a big fight between people who are woke and people who are anti-woke.
“People really don’t want that and people on both sides of that debate probably do want that for reasons of self-promotion and other reasons and I just hope that we can avoid that and keep it rational and keep it anchored in the centre ground.”
