Legislation to criminalise so-called “conversion therapy practices” is unnecessary and could be weaponised against medical professionals working with patients suffering with gender dysphoria.

That’s according to psychiatrist Dr Paul Moran of the HSE’s National Gender Service.

He was responding to an announcement by the Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman that he would bring forward legislation in the coming weeks with a view to passing legislation early in 2024.

He said that “conversion practices are cruel processes rooted in shame and stigma that seek to change, suppress or eliminate a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity”.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, O’Gorman claimed that conversion therapy practices do take place in this country, although they occur rarely.

“We’re not talking about conversations that take place about a person’s sexual orientation or their gender identity, the conversation between parents and kids, conversations between a priest or minister and a parishioner, conversations between a therapist and a client”.

This characterisation was disputed by Dr Moran.

He told Newstalk he had “never come across a case that has had any conversion therapy.”

“Clearly there is a law to ban something which is not happening and has not happened in living memory,” he said.

He added that there are pressure groups against the “very careful therapeutic way” of addressing gender dysphoria and they’re pushing for ‘gender reassignment’ measures like puberty blockers, sex hormones and even surgery without any assessment or therapy.

“The law is addressing a problem that doesn’t exist but it could empower these activists to undermine and attack the therapists who are trying to help these people.”

Dr Moran claimed the new law could “enable people to make spurious accusations” about a psychiatrist’s work.

“That could result in a lot of good professionals moving away from this much-needed work,” he said.