An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-26
============================================================

Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

We have discovered through a parliamentary question submitted by Aontú that the Department of education has given just under €500,000 to the LGBTQ+ organisation Belong To. Does the Government feel it is appropriate to fund organisations that have been criticised by young people themselves for putting its agenda over the well-being and safety of children? It has been rightly condemned for spreading misinformation, for advising children not to tell their parents if they use a chest binder and for encouraging young people to speak only with trusted adults. These trusted adults are, of course, only those who are affirmative of their gender transition. Belong To's stand up campaign, which is rolled out in schools nationwide, is rooted in the Bí Cinealta programme, which has been criticised by parents, teachers and students. We can teach our children to be respectful and kind without forcing them to go against what is biologically true. We have a duty to ensure that what we teach children is grounded in best practice and appropriate for their age and stage of development.
The Government's priorities seem totally twisted. We constantly see money being poured into NGOs, awareness campaigns and agenda-driven gender guides and no priority given to what is actually important. Classrooms remain under-resourced, parents struggle to find support for their children, and young people with disabilities feel totally left behind in the education system. Please stop allowing these loud activists to push an agenda. Are we now educating flag wavers for NGOs? Listen to what teachers and parents actually want. They need to know their children will have a place for school in September and that they will have SNAs to support children with additional needs.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-26