Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not take eight minutes, but I could not but stand up today to say a few words on this historic day. I listened with great interest to the Minister's speech and to some of the wonderful speeches of my colleagues, particularly Senator Zappone, who is one of my greatest friends of all time and someone I admire greatly. Taking a serious point made by Senator Norris, today is but one day in this journey and 22 May is what I have my eye on. I will make a very short speech, but I want to hear from the Minister later today and later this week that the Government and the Cabinet have a clear eye on 22 May.

The Government and the country cannot stand up for human rights and civil rights and not support gay marriage. It is as simple as that. It is black and white. We are about human rights and civil rights in Ireland. We can give out about other nations in the world where terrible things are happening, but this is within our grasp. Listening to Senator Norris, it is not enough just to vote. We need to speak. We need to share with our constituents and our friends.

I speak about this with my friends at weekends and in the evenings, at dinner. To clarify, as other speakers have, this legislation is very simple and it has nothing to do with children or with heterosexual marriage. This is just about the right of girls and girls, ladies and ladies, women and women, boys and boys or men and men to get married. It is about our friends, our colleagues, our brothers, our sisters, our nieces, our nephews, our children, and our grandchildren. What I know for sure is that, for those who are listening and thinking this has nothing to do with them, it does, because at some stage in their life this will appear as someone they love and care for. Stealing some words-----