Amid the ongoing cost of living crisis, as fuel and energy prices soar, a Fianna Fáil Senator has hit out at the lack of a “non-binary” gender option on the census.
And they wonder why they’re falling behind in the polls.
The comments were made this week by Senator Fiona O’Loughlin during the order of business.
“I wish to briefly raise the CSO census of 2022, which we know everybody will be taking part in on the 3rd of April, and I encourage everyone to do so,” she said.
“On the issue about citizens’ gender identity, while a person’s sex is included, gender is not. The options are just “male” and “female”. I heard on the radio in recent days that people have the option of ticking both boxes if they are transgender or non-binary, although the CSO will decide whether that is male or female.”
She added: “That is sending out the completely wrong message.”
The senator went on to say that the census should include an option for “non-binary” people – those who identify as neither male nor female.
“People who do not identify as male or female should have the option, if they are identifying, to tick both boxes or tick neither box, and that this would be taken as non-binary or transgender,” she said.
“The results that come from the census inform public policy in the following years, in terms of health needs etc. Some clarity needs to be brought to that issue.”
Bear in mind that the senator saw fit to raise this issue in the Seanad at a time when Ireland is experiencing a brutal inflation hike (which the government warns is not temporary), driving up the cost of goods for years to come.
The surge in Irish inflation could last more than two years, deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar warned as he called for a “comprehensive” strategy to reduce the cost of living https://t.co/pzPREcF3WJ
— Bloomberg (@business) March 23, 2022
Ireland is experiencing record fuel prices, and energy costs are surging across the board.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/cost-of-living-fuel-costs-surge-to-record-highs-with-some-stations-charging-over-2-per-litre-1.4821361
We’re even being warned by the government and farming organisations like the IFA about the real potential for food and energy rationing.
The cost of living is the number one issue that voters are concerned about according to polls.
Cost-of-living rise overtakes housing crisis as main worry https://t.co/SDN5OPWiPJ
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) February 6, 2022
And yet what are government politicians worried about? Bloviating about how the census doesn’t cater enough to all of the 43,000 genders. This is what we’re paying these people handsome salaries to do all day.
Call me crazy, but if you ask me, politicians should not have the mental bandwidth to be thinking about such, pardon my french, frivolous bollocks. One hundred percent of their focus and energy should be on making life easier for their constituents who are suffering financially.
Without putting too fine a point on it, you would be hard pressed to find anyone outside of political, media and NGO circles who gives a rat’s arse about third genders on the census form. If you’re like most people, you probably worry more about, for example, the fact that you can’t afford to drive your car to work anymore. Or the fact that food, electricity and gas prices have shot up to unsustainable levels and you don’t know how long you can afford it.
In a moment of crisis, the last thing you need are leaders who are living in cloud cuckoo land. But unfortunately, that’s precisely what we seem to have.
It’s going to be a bumpy ride, ladies and gentlemen.