Offaly TD calls for Ireland to "ban male participants from female sports"

Offaly TD Carol Nolan has said she is calling on all national governing bodies to ensure that biologically male participants will no longer be able to compete in female-only sports or athletic activities.

Deputy Nolan said she had been raising concerns around this issue for a number of years.

The Independent TD welcomed the decision of US President Donald Trump to this week sign an executive order prohibiting biologically male competitors competing in female sports.

"The tide is turning against the demands of well financed and radical gender ideologues who have dismissed and downplayed the concerns of women and girls when it comes to a level playing ground for sports and athletic competitions," Deputy Nolan said in a statement.

"The influence these groups have exerted has been wholly disproportionate to the level of genuine demand that exists. They have effectively engaged in a hostile takeover of what were once female-only spaces. That must end.

"We must have the courage to point out the blatantly obvious; allowing full grown biological men to compete with young women or girls is nothing short of ludicrous. It always was and it always will be despite the attempts of gender ideologues to refashion or outright reject biological reality.

"If persons identifying as transgender or non-binary wish to compete, the solution is to provide a distinct category that will allow for such participation while leaving female-only categories to do what they have always done; cater for girls and women.

"I have also raised similar issues in a different context in terms of the Gender Recognition (Amendment) (Prisons) Bill 2023. I was happy to co-sponsor and act as a signatory to this Bill which sought to make provision for single-sex accommodation in prisons.

"My view is that this principle should apply to all female only spaces, from sports to women's domestic violence refuges to prisons and hospital wards.

"Women and girls need, demand, and deserve their own spaces. I will never apologise for holding or defending this basic principle rooted in common sense," Deputy Nolan concluded.