Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and commend Senators on their very powerful speeches and true words. It is very important to place this issue in its context. It is not, and nor should it be, a polemical or ideological context but rather a very personal one. The letter on the front page of the Sunday Independentlast weekend was very poignant. It was from a 60 year old gay man who was never able to come out. This inability was due to the fear that his parents lives would be difficult in religious Ireland. We can all understand the difficulty of the situation in which he found himself. His parents have passed on without knowing their true son, or his fear and the challenges and loneliness of his life. The most stirring part of the letter is in his admission that he will cry if the referendum is passed, and not that he will shed a tear but that in all likelihood he will do so alone without anyone to share his joy. This detail of his life very much upset me. It also illustrates our opportunity to change so many citizens' lives for the better.

It is true that our State and society in so many ways have conspired to silence this man, and this is profoundly saddening. This is the context in which we should approach the debate, the fact that thousands of our fellow citizens have, since the establishment of the State, been treated as unequal citizens and shunned, silenced and even abused. Thankfully, recent years have seen a change in attitudes to those in a minority, be it sexual or otherwise. Our history of institutional abuse of those who were somehow thought different should be a valuable lesson as we approach this decision. We can no longer let fear and disapproval be the motivating factors in our social policy.

I will examine the arguments against equal marriage. Who has the right to define marriage? There are any number of organisations which seem to be absolute in their belief. I cannot understand such certainty. The first recorded marriage contracts in existence pre-date Jesus by approximately 600 years. The concept of marriage thousands of years ago is a far cry from what it is today. What we are considering is civil marriage. The churches can continue to define marriage for themselves and their followers long after this referendum, whatever the outcome. Importantly, the passing of the referendum, if it happens, will not require any church to perform such a ceremony.

We often hear the repeated argument that only a marriage between a woman and a man has any reproductive possibility and therefore should have the protection of a special status. To suggest marriage is all about procreation utterly ignores the modern reality. For some it is about children, but for some it is not. Additionally, some opposite-sex couples who wish to do so will never be able to have children due to infertility. Some opposite-sex couples are long beyond the possibility in years when they marry. The logical conclusion to the reproductive argument is that all couples would have to be fertility tested before marriage and infertile couples and those of advanced years would not be allowed to marry. Of course we will never hear this argument being made, and there is no compunction to reproduce to get married. However it would seem gay people have to be able to reproduce to marry. It is a double standard. An Irish marriage licence is not conditional upon having children. The Irish Supreme Court in McGee v.Attorney General upheld a married couple's right to use contraception to prevent them having children if they so wished.

The argument that equal marriage would deprive children of the right to a mother and a father is not one which stands up to scrutiny. Many children do not have a mother or a father. Gay people have children and can foster children. Single gay people can, and do, adopt. Unmarried people and single heterosexual people have children all the time. This referendum will not change this one bit, and to suggest it will is disingenuous to say the least.

I will deal with a particular suggestion which arose at the weekend that a conscience clause should be built into the legislation to allow for the refusal of goods and services to gay couples getting married. The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has since said he is not calling for such a provision and I am glad to hear it. The suggestion is now a live issue and must be dealt with. We live in a republic which values, as I do, religious freedom. This religious freedom does not translate into allowing anyone to refuse to provide goods or services to a fellow citizen. Citizens can have whatever religious belief they want and practice that faith freely. Our Constitution rightly mandates such freedom. What one cannot do is impose this belief on others and make them suffer because of it. What such a conscience clause would amount to is bare discrimination against gay people under the cloak of religious freedom. If it was suggested that a mixed-race couple, or any other minority, would be so treated there would be outrage. I find any suggestion that such a clause be inserted ill-thought-out and deeply offensive. It lacks any understanding of what a true republic constitutes and should and will be rejected out of hand.

On the Houses of the Oireachtas website is a selection of famous parliamentary speeches given over the decades. One was given by the great Irishman, Senator W.B. Yeats, on 11 June 1925 during the course of a debate on divorce. He perfectly summed up the reasons no such conscience clause should never be inserted, or why no religious view should ever come to dictate social policy. He stated: "Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds you open the way for every kind of intolerance and for every kind of religious persecution." His view was defeated on that day, to society's cost in years to come.

I use the terms "marriage equality" or "equal marriage" rather than "gay marriage" or "same-sex marriage" for a very particular reason. Our gay citizens are not looking for any special or separate form of marriage. Our gay citizens do not want to change marriage but rather to share in it. They want to love, share, protect and experience marriage just like everyone else. They want to be equal and be treated as equal citizens and they deserve it.