Labour chooses warped ideology over workers, families and child safety – O’Flynn

Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn has accused the Labour Party of “turning its back on workers, families and reality” by prioritising an expansion of medicalised transgender interventions for minors at a time when households and small businesses across Ireland are struggling to pay their bills.

Deputy O’Flynn said that while families worry about heating costs, rising food prices and the survival of local shops, Labour’s priority is “a deeply ideological motion that would radically lower safeguards for children and expand medicalised pathways that even other European health systems are now retreating from.”

“People are trying to keep the heat on,” O’Flynn said. “They are worried about rent, mortgages, energy bills and the price of groceries. Small businesses are fighting for survival this winter. Yet Labour’s focus is a motion centred on medicating children and embedding a contested ideology into healthcare and law. They have lost touch with the country they claim to represent.”

The Cork North-Central TD said the motion seeks to replace the National Gender Service, expand surgical pathways, and establish “gender-affirming” healthcare for those under 18, including GP-led prescribing and simplified gender recognition procedures for minors. He described this as “a reckless abandonment of child safeguarding at the very moment when countries across Europe are moving in the opposite direction.”

O’Flynn noted that Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and France have all tightened medical protocols for minors due to concerns about weak evidence, unknown long-term outcomes and failures in earlier care models. He also highlighted the UK Cass Review, a major NHS-commissioned study which identified serious gaps in the evidence base for puberty blockers, uncertainty about long-term hormonal effects, and inadequate psychological assessment for children experiencing distress.

“Labour wants Ireland to surge ahead with a model that other countries are now pulling back from,” he said. “Ireland has not carried out anything close to the rigorous review undertaken in the UK. Yet Labour proposes to expand services with no comprehensive data and no proper oversight. That is not responsible healthcare – it is ideology.”

Deputy O’Flynn said Labour’s proposal for simplified gender recognition for minors demonstrates a “complete detachment from biological reality and from the basic safeguarding standards we expect for children.” He criticised attempts to normalise complex medical decisions in primary care settings without specialist assessment, saying children require “careful, holistic evaluation – not shortcuts or assumptions.”

“The safety and wellbeing of minors must come before ideological demands,” he said. “Children experiencing distress need robust psychological support and careful clinical evaluation. They do not need a political party treating complex developmental issues as a test of ideological purity.”

O’Flynn added that the motion is emblematic of a party that has lost sight of the everyday concerns of ordinary people. “Workers are under pressure every week,” he said. “Families face impossible costs. Thousands of children are waiting for dental appointments, scoliosis treatment and mental-health services. Yet Labour’s focus is a motion that has nothing to do with the lived reality of the people they once championed.”

“Independent Ireland believes in evidence-based healthcare, strong safeguards and responsible policy-making. Labour has chosen ideology over workers, ideology over families and ideology over child safety. The public can see the difference.”