Joan Burton is the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), Minister for Social Protection, and first female Leader of the Labour Party. Joan continues to represent the Dublin West Constituency, having been first elected in 1991 as a Dublin County Councillor for the Mulhuddart Local Electoral Area. In her video, Joan recounts a moving encounter she had with a mother who wants her daughter to be able to come back to Ireland with her partner.

“I was approached by a woman at Christmas, who was worried that her daughter wouldn’t ever come back to Ireland because she is a lesbian. She wanted what every Irish mother wants for her child – for her daughter to be a full and equal citizen in her own country.”