Roderic O'Gorman

Roderic O'Gorman (born 12 December 1982) is an Irish Green Party politician serving as Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration in the government of Ireland since June 2020. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West constituency since the 2020 general election. He served as Chairman of the Green Party from 2011 to 2019.

O'Gorman is originally from Mulhuddart, and now lives in Blanchardstown. He works as lecturer in law at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, where he is the programme chair of the Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Politics and Law programme. Before this he worked at Griffith College, where he lectured and was a course director for five years. He had completed his undergraduate law degree at Trinity College, followed by a Master of Laws in EU law in the London School of Economics. He completed his PhD entitled 'Union citizenship, social rights and the Marshallian approach' in Trinity College, Dublin in 2011. He is openly gay.

O'Gorman first brush with politics and the Green Party came when, at the age of 10 years old, he canvassed on behalf of his local Councillor Trevor Sargent in his successful bid in the 1992 general election. O'Gorman formally joined the Young Greens while studying law at Trinity College Dublin in the early 2000s and supported John Gormley in his bid for the leadership of the Green Party in 2002.

O'Gorman was considered 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.

O'Gorman was elected as a Fingal County Councillor for the Castleknock local electoral area, following the 2014 local elections. He failed to get elected as a TD at the 2007, 2011 and 2016 general elections, but finally succeeded when he was elected in the 2020 General Election to represent Dublin West. On the 27th of June 2020 he was appointed Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration in the 32nd Government of Ireland.

Following his appointment as Minister, O'Gorman was criticised on social media regarding a photo of him appearing with Peter Tatchell, a British LGBT activist who has been criticised for remarks made regarding paedophilia in 1997. O'Gorman issued a public statement via Twitter regarding the matter.

I met Peter Tatchell once and took a photo. That was the only time I have met him. I knew of him as someone who stood up for LGBT people in countries where their rights were threatened. I was surprised to read some quotes from the 90s, which I had not read before. Any of those views would be completely abhorrent to me. I’m glad to see he’s clarified and explained that what is being alleged isn’t his view.

As part of the public statement, O'Gorman also suggested that far right twitter account users were driving the story and manipulating genuine concerns for the protection of children into a homophobic attack upon himself. Fine Gael Deputy Leader Simon Coveney agreed with that view and offered his support via twitter.