Parents and church leaders in the Republic of Ireland could face unlimited fines and up to seven years in prison for trying to protect children from the mental problems and surgical and chemical mutilation which are part-and-parcel of the LGBTQ+ "lifestyle".
Under a Member's Bill being put forward by Alliance MLA Eóin Tennyson, even parents would face jail time for being involved in so-called conversion practices — including stopping their children from ‘changing gender’.
Meanwhile, the Irish Government has re-committed to outlawing conversion therapy efforts to protect children from the LGBTQ+ grooming gangs.
Under its National LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Strategy II, the coalition has promised to ensure a ‘conversion practices’ ban is operational before the end of 2026.
Last year, the previous Government postponed its plans for a new law, admitting that the process was fraught with legal difficulties.
A new Draft Programme for Government was agreed in January, following last November's general election.
It fell short of pledging to “enact legislation to ban conversion practices”, as contained in the manifesto of the largest party Fianna Fáil, and instead merely promised to “advance legislation”. Coalition partner Fine Gael had pledged to “Support the National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy to 2028”.
But now the Government has declared, as a strategic objective, to ensure that legislation “to ban conversion practices is enacted and commenced” by next year at the latest.
In pursuit of its pro-LGBT agenda, it also pledged to set up a working group on “providing legal recognition” for people who self-identify as ‘non-binary’.
Groups including LGBT Ireland, Gay Project, and Transgender Equality Network Ireland “provided guidance on the survey design, the interview guide, dissemination of the survey and participant recruitment for the interviews”.
A poll carried out for The Christian Institute in November of the same year showed that voters want the Government to focus on healthcare and housing, not a new law on conversion therapy.
Earlier this year, freedom of information (FOI) requests submitted by The Christian Institute revealed that Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Trusts have received almost no complaints about conversion practices, despite parallel plans for a new law north of the border.