Chamber and committees

I would appreciate that.

Good afternoon, senator. Thank you for joining us and for the information that you gave us in advance—it is invaluable. The answers so far have also been really helpful.

I want to go straight to one of the areas of contention around the bill; I think that you alluded to it earlier, but I am really keen to hear from you as a legislator about how you navigated it.

You will know that a lot of the contention around the bill as proposed is that it could negatively impact on women’s ability to access single-sex spaces. What is your response to that and can you tell us a little bit about how the legislation in Ireland has interacted with women’s rights and their access to single-sex spaces? Have you seen any abuse of the self-declaration model by bad-faith actors—by men trying to use the self-declaration system in bad faith, basically?

I will ask a final question about data collection. Can you tell us about the impact on data collection of the legislation that you have brought in, particularly in relation to data on the representation of women on boards or anywhere else?

I am sorry to hear that that is the situation, but thank you for sharing it.

The other part of my question was about whether the move to self-identification has affected data about women.

It has been put to the committee that, if we move to a self-declaration model and do not collect data on both sex and gender, we might not necessarily have the information that we need to determine whether we are making progress in certain areas of women’s equality. I am keen to know whether you considered that.

I appreciate that some of the questions appear to be coming from slightly left field, as you have described, given the experience that you had in 2015, but I am keen to understand how much of that was explored in what you are seeing now.

Good afternoon to the panel. Thank you for the evidence that you have given so far and the information that you submitted in advance, which we found incredibly helpful.

A lot of my questions have already been covered, with the exception of a couple, so I will focus on them. You have touched on this, but can you tell us, from experience elsewhere, whether there are any countries that have monitored the impact of self-identification on the use of single-sex spaces?

Will the ability to withhold the fact that someone has a gender recognition certificate, as it is protected information, be affected by the bill?

Yes.

Thank you both for your answers.

I want to move on to talk about what we have heard already, which is the interdependence of human rights. I wonder if the SHRC could comment. We have heard from some people who have given evidence to the committee that there are women who are self-excluding from services and public spaces, such as toilets and changing rooms. That self-exclusion itself is significant enough to be proportionate and meet the test that you have set to determine that changes may be needed.

Can you tell us about your understanding of that behaviour and how it relates to this particular piece of legislation? I very strongly take the point that we must refer specifically to the legislation that is in front of us, as opposed to anything else.

That was helpful—thank you.

I would like to ask one final question, if that is okay, convener.