Targeting TDs' dress sends the wrong message says 'Ming' Flanagan

Yesterday, during a debate on suicide prevention, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan took his Dáil colleagues to task for comments made about Richard Boyd Barrett's choice of clothes, saying, "If abuse is constantly thrown at Members because of the way they look, that will send a signal to young people that if they do not look the same as everyone else then there is something wrong with them when there is not." His full speech is below.

"I could have sat down and done a massive amount of research on the subject and come to the House with figures but I decided to talk about my experience and that of my community, what suicide has done to it, what seems to have caused it and perhaps what are the solutions.

One often hears experts in this area talk about nature versus nurture. With the significant rise in the amount of suicides in recent years it is clear that the nurture aspect of the issue is the problem at the moment in this country. It is not a problem of nurture within the family; the problem is the lack of nurture from the State. The consequences of society falling apart socially and economically are that more people feel they do not have any choice but to take their lives. There are a variety of reasons for that, such as financial, due to the economy falling apart. People are afraid they are going to lose their house and that they will not be able to put food on the table. That makes people miserable and leads to a downward spiral.

One of the major problems in this country in terms of suicide is due to the thinking that is prevalent around the world that style is more important than substance and that if one is somehow different that one is fair game to get abused. We had an example of it in the Dáil Chamber today. When Deputy Boyd Barrett made a comment, a retort was made from the other side of the Chamber to the effect that his style of dress was not even good enough for a council chamber. What does it matter about how one looks, how big or small one is, how long or short one's hair follicles or what type of clothing one wears? That is irrelevant. It is a rotten message to send out from the Chamber.

We are all different. Some of us are a little bit more different. When I was going to school I was a little more different - perhaps I still am. So be it. I had to put up with jibes from people. It put pressure on my life and made me feel insecure about who I was as a person. Fifteen years ago I went to the doctor and told him I was feeling a little depressed. I could not really work out what was wrong. Since then I worked out that perhaps many people in society did not accept me for what I was. Fortunately, I have grown up since then and I do not really give a damn about what society thinks. I am who I am and I am proud of it. A lot of young people should take encouragement from that. One can be who one is. One does not have to be who they say one has to be in those stupid bloody magazines. Excuse my language but I hate them.

They tell people on the front page that it is all right to do this, that or the other but when one opens up the magazine a contradictory message is given. On the front page they say it is all right to be fat but on the inside page they say it is not. They give a lot of mixed messages and confuse people.

What are the solutions? We are not going to find them today but I hope that over the five year term of this Dáil we look for real solutions. We will not solve all the problems but we should adopt the policy of vive la différence because we are all different and we should respect that. If abuse is constantly thrown at Members because of the way they look, that will send a signal to young people that if they do not look the same as everyone else then there is something wrong with them when there is not."