Heather Humphreys has overruled Green Party leader Roderic ­O’Gorman to ensure there will be no law change before the general election to allow those aged under 16 to legally change gender.

The Department of Social Protection, where Ms Humphreys is minister, and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, where Mr O’Gorman is minister, jointly commissioned a report in November 2022 examining whether a radical gender-change law from 2015 could be extended to under-16s.

While Mr O’Gorman favoured the introduction of a process for children to legally change gender, there has been growing resistance from Fine Gael politicians following the Dr Hilary Cass report published in the UK in April.

Dr Cass found there was “remarkably weak evidence” supporting the case for medical transitioning of children and warned that there was no clear evidence of whether the social transitioning of children had positive or negative mental health outcomes.