A number of trans organisations have criticised the closure of the National Gender Service’s waiting list, which was announced last night.
As The Irish Times reports, new clients will not be able to join the waiting list for gender-affirming care from March 1, 2026. The NGS’s lead psychiatrist Dr Paul Moran described the decision as “very regrettable”, and cited a lack of space and resources as the reason for the closure.
On last night’s episode of Prime Time, Dr Moran said there are currently 2,500 people on the NGS’s waiting list.
Transgress the NGS, an activist group that advocates for self-determined trans healthcare in Ireland, said the closure is “further evidence of the dire situation facing trans people trying to access essential, life-saving healthcare in the Republic of Ireland.”
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A statement released by Transgress the NGS read: “The extreme waiting times, currently estimated at over a decade long, and the invasive and demeaning psychiatric assessments that patients are forced to undergo mean that the system has long been non-functional.
“NGS staff state that they have been denied additional resources and this is the reason for the waiting list being closed. In fact their inability to keep up with the waiting list is entirely due to the model of care which the NGS has adopted and their absolute refusal to modernise the service.”
Transgress the NGS said there is an “urgent need for a model of trans healthcare based on the principle of informed consent and with primary care providers playing a leading role, as is the case in many other jurisdictions.”
Trans & Intersex Pride Dublin said that the news is “upsetting to any young trans person or anyone struggling to get a referral.”
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A post on Instagram read: “Closure of the NGS waiting list now means officially there will be no way for any trans person to access HRT, if they haven’t already gotten a referral. This move will force even more people to seek more expensive private clinics like GenderGP and Imago, as well as DIY HRT for those who can’t afford private services.”
Trans & Intersex Pride Dublin said the NGS’s current model of care is to blame for “sky-high waiting lists”, and cited intense assessments as a cause of the backlog.
The activist group said GPs should be allowed to prescribe HRT in order to offload demand, and reiterated calls for informed-consent trans healthcare through a GP service where “trans people are believed and given agency over our own bodies.”
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