If you have any knowledge at all as to how governments are lobbied on self-id, Purcell's words epitomize the issue of unintended consequences of this policy.
“The law that was enacted in 2015 did not envisage this situation, and it puts the Prison Service and the courts in a difficult position because, obviously, if somebody is self-declaring that they have to be recognised, then they have to be dealt with on that basis, even though physically, they have not have made the [physical] transformation.
I don’t think the legislation envisaged the ability of transgender people to be able to self-declare; and it didn’t foresee the problems it would cause if a transgender, self-declared person was held in a mixed prison,” he said.
Let that sink in: the self-id law did not envisage a male actually self-identifying self-identifying and thus gain access to female only facilities.
How is this possible?
We know from the published literature from the last consultation as well as FOIs that what trans rights lobbyists claim is that self-id will help people who identify as trans who are very vulnerable and very much discriminated against.
This is of course a reference to the transsexuals for whom the original GRA was written. We know - for instance from the training the Glasgow Life employees received - that they are being told that no one pre-op who is after all so vulnerable and distressed because they identify as trans would ever strip naked in front of either sex as they feel so uncomfortable with their bodies etc. (Which we know does not actually apply to the majority of those who push for self-id.)
So the poor Irish prison service now has to deal with the fallout from the government being sold a pup. And Irish lawmakers didn't just fall for the narrative, they also didn't think to dig a little deeper into the population seeking to self-identify or think critically about the needs and rights of women, so now services and organisations have to deal with the true face of self-id - the obvious male, completely unadulterated, equipped with a fully functional male reproductive system, who may or may not express his feminine side by wearing dresses etc.
It took four years for this to come to the fore, so the Scottish Government saying there's no evidence* about laws being abused that were enacted less than five years ago is not just disingenuous, it is downright dishonest if that statement isn't accompanied by a disclaimer taking this vital fact into account.
*There is evidence though from all countries and territories that have enacted self-id laws and/or adopted self-id policies in practice.
From Denmark, Norway, US states with self-id, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Scotland, Mexico...