Roderic O'Gorman

Roderic O'Gorman (born 12 December 1981) is an Irish Green Party politician who has served as Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth since June 2020.

O'Gorman's first engagement with green politics came at the age of 10 years when he canvassed on behalf of his local councillor Trevor Sargent, in his successful bid in the 1992 general election.

The latter is an LGBT activist and member of the Green Party of England and Wales; he had been criticised for remarks made in 1997 regarding paedophilia.

Newstalk presenter Ciara Kelly, and actor John Connors both pressed Tatchell for his current views on the issues.

O'Gorman issued a public statement via Twitter clarifying his own position and his opposition to paedophilia, and that he had been unaware of Tatchell's past remarks.

Continuing, O'Gorman said attacks on social media on him regarding the issue were "rooted in homophobia" from the far right.

He said that neither he, his party, nor the government had any plans to lower the age of consent for sexual activity in Ireland.

John Connors later appeared at a rally entitled "hands off our kids" held against O'Gorman outside Dáil Éireann which included members of the Irish Freedom Party and the National Party, who unfurled a banner at the demonstration depicting a noose.

Following the rally, Connors made an apology to O'Gorman, saying that he had been "politically naive" and contributed to "hurtful and false assertions" about the TD: "What is difficult for me to accept is that my own misguided anger led me to appear to feed an army of trolls and support groups whose views I find repugnant, whose politics are rotten and whose methods are ugly."

O'Gorman said he accepted the apology and considered the issue resolved.

O'Gorman joined the Young Greens while studying law at Trinity College Dublin in the early 2000s.

He supported John Gormley in his bid for the leadership of the Green Party in 2002.

He ran but failed to get elected as a TD at the 2007, 2011, and 2016 general elections.

O'Gorman was considered one of the most ardent supporters of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, which introduced Civil Partnerships for Gay and Lesbian couples in Ireland.

He previously served as Chairman of the Green Party from 2011 to 2019.

O'Gorman is originally from Mulhuddart, a small outer suburb of Dublin.

He now lives in Blanchardstown.

He completed an undergraduate law degree at Trinity College Dublin, followed by a Master of Laws in European Union (EU) law in the London School of Economics.

In 2011 he completed his PhD, with a dissertation entitled 'Union citizenship, social rights and the Marshallian approach', at Trinity College Dublin.

O'Gorman started an academic career at Griffith College, where he lectured and was a course director for five years.

He next worked as a law lecturer in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University.

He served as the programme chair of the Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Politics and Law.

He has taken leave in order to serve as a TD.

He has openly identified as gay.

He has said that he knew he wanted to be a politician even before he identified his sexual orientation.

In August 2023, he married his long-term partner Ray Healy.

He first ran for office in the 2014 local elections and won a seat on Fingal County Council for the Castleknock local electoral area.

He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West constituency since 2020.

At the general election in February 2020, he was elected as a TD for Dublin West.

Pamela Conroy was co-opted to O'Gorman's seat on Fingal County Council following his election to Dáil Éireann.

On 27 June 2020, O'Gorman was appointed Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in the Government of the 33rd Dáil.

Following his appointment as Minister for Children, O'Gorman was criticised on social media for a tweet containing a photo of himself and Peter Tatchell under the heading "Happy Pride . Delighted that @PeterTatchell is marching with @greenparty_ie today".

In July 2020, O'Gorman announced his intention to make it easier for those under the age of 16 to legally change their gender with their parent's consent.

That same month he also announced a "root and branch" review of the "fragmented" child care sector, with the intention that after 10 months a new agency would be created that could pull together and co-ordinate the many different committees and national bodies already tasked with oversight of Irish childcare as well as cutting through red tape.

He also pledged to increase financial support for parents who choose to look after their children themselves rather than using childcare services.

In February 2021 O'Gorman oversaw the publishing of a white paper outlining the government's plan to abolish direct provision and replace it with a new system to be fully implemented by the end of 2024.

Under the new system, those claiming asylum in Ireland will initially be housed in one of six state-owned Reception and Integration Centres with own-door or own-room accommodation.

After 4 months, applicants will be housed in the community.

Writing in the paper, O'Gorman stated "Each county will be asked to accommodate applicants for International Protection so that the International Protection accommodation process becomes a standard feature of Irish cities and towns and to ensure that applicants do not become ghettoised in any one area".

In March 2021 O'Gorman extended paid parental leave from two weeks to five weeks, as well as allowing parental leave to be taken at any time in the first two years after the birth of a child.