Mr. Frank Moran:

I feel I have the same level of responsibility towards my spousal partner as anybody else has in a marriage. It is nothing other than that. Friends have said to me, since the passing of the referendum, not just gay friends but other people, "Are you not entitled to? Would you not be entitled to?" That is where the community comes in; on the basis of equality. People are very fair, if others have been discriminated against in the past. This is what the law is, what the referendum was, and what revolutionary Ireland's social forces were all about. This legislation is simply flawed.

The intent of the legislation was correct. The intent of the legislation presents no difficulty at all. It fulfils the requirements of the constitutional outcome of the referendum. Why a 36-month provision was tagged to either the Marriage Act 2015 or the civil partnership Act 2010 is beyond me. The word "transitional" does not cover it. If transitional is the issue, transitional should be attached to the Bill itself stating that the provisions of the Bill have a 36-month period, which is open to people to apply. Transitional conditions cannot be imposed retrospectively, thereby making the actual legislation inaccessible. That is simply what those provisions have done. All I want is equal treatment. Nothing more and nothing less.