Executive's inability to define what a woman is encapsulates 'confusion and incoherence' at Stormont - Timothy Gaston

Aisling Reilly dodged a question from TUV MLA Timothy Gaston on the matter, and what impact it would have on the department’s strategy on ending violence against women and girls.

Michelle O’Neill’s junior minister said the Executive Office (TEO) would await guidance from the Equality Commission (ECNI) on the matter – adding that everyone deserves “the same love, equality, respect and compassion” regardless of how they define themselves.

DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has described the court ruling – which said that sex is defined by biology not identity – as common sense.

But the First Minister has refused to be drawn on her view on the implications of the judgement, also stating that she would wait for (non-statutory) guidance from ECNI.

North Antrim MLA Mr Gaston says it raises serious questions about the Executive’s strategy on violence against women and girls – saying it “encapsulates the confusion and incoherence” at Stormont.

He told the News Letter: “There are serious questions hanging over the Executive Office’s Strategy on Violence Against Women and Girls — not least because the department driving it is jointly headed by someone who once claimed there was ‘no alternative’ to the murder and maiming of women during the Troubles.

“But more fundamentally, the Executive Office still cannot say what a woman is.

“In the wake of a clear Supreme Court judgment reaffirming the legal definition of sex, the public is told that Stormont cannot explain how this impacts a flagship policy for women and girls — not until it receives non-statutory guidance on how to define those the strategy is supposed to protect.

“That admission speaks volumes. If you can’t define who the policy is for, you can’t claim to be protecting them.

“It’s a shambles — and it encapsulates the confusion and incoherence that too often defines the Stormont Executive.”