The Government is committed to achieving its vision of a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland where people are supported to flourish and to live inclusive, healthy and fulfilling lives, whatever their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics. Ireland’s first National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2022, published in November 2019, is the primary policy vehicle to achieve this vision.
The Strategy pursues objectives under four thematic pillars providing a vision of an Ireland where LGBTI+ people are visible and included, treated equally, healthy and feel safe and supported. It includes over 100 actions aimed at making progress towards these high-level objectives. To offset delays in the strategy's implementation due to the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, I extended its lifetime into 2022. Work is continuing this year on the implementation of the strategy.
My Department is committed to providing ongoing support to the LGBTI+ Community that will enable them to feel safe and supported. During Pride in June, I launched the 2022 LGBTI+ Community Services Funding Call. This Funding Call will support and bolster community services that promote visibility and inclusion of LGBTI+ people. The Funding call was open to organisations and groups operating at national, regional and local level.
Following direct engagement with LGBTI+ community groups, Scheme A of the Funding Call was expanded to include a ‘core support’ model that was open for larger style projects. The Scheme was also open to applications from existing LGBTI+ NGOs for funding to maintain and enhance existing services and initiatives. This will assist these organisations build capacity and maintain existing and well-established LGBTI+ supports. The outcome of the Funding Call will be announced in the coming weeks.
Action 21 of the strategy aims to ensure that Ireland has robust legislation and supports in place to combat hate crime, and encourages people to report it. The Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána lead on this action, and have introduced several measures to protect LGBTI+ people including changes to the recording of motives on the Garda PULSE system and the implementation of an online hate crime reporting tool.
The Employment Equality Acts also provide protection against harassment in the workplace, including against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
In addition, my Department recently commissioned research aimed at capturing the views and experiences of people who have been subjected to the practice of conversion therapy in Ireland. This qualitative research which commenced in February 2022 is expected to be completed in autumn 2022, and will assist the Government in developing legislation to ban the practice of conversion therapy. My Department will also examine international good practice in this regard.
The National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy will be reviewed next year as part of the process of developing a successor strategy.
