Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

This House, with the consent of all the parties, will pass all Stages of emergency legislation in a few hours to close a loophole in respect of the operation of health insurance. When we are united, we can act very quickly and when we are united on a particular course of action, we can move with speed. Deputy O'Connor said we should not rush into things, we should take our time, this is a complex issue. However, his party leader wants us to change our Constitution in eight different ways virtually tomorrow without any reflection or comprehension of the implications of what we are trying to do in relation to the protection of children.

Let us be clear. The time is over. It is time to act. We acted ten years ago, not because Máire Geoghegan-Quinn had courage but because the Labour Party had given her backbone. We had negotiated in the programme for Government — and I am proud to sit beside a colleague who helped me to do it — that it would be an essential condition of Labour's participation in government that this would not become an aspiration but would become law.

I detect a mood right across this country, from Ballinasloe to Ballybrack, from Cahirciveen to Cavan and from Donegal to Dundalk. There is a cry arising from a large section of our people which is quite simple — we want to be free. We want to be free to exercise the same rights as citizens that our brothers, sisters, cousins and mothers and fathers have exercised without any constraint or restraint. This is about freedom — freedom to be equal, freedom not only to step out of the closet, a right they got ten years ago, but to step into the sunshine of liberation which this Bill could give to them. Yet the Progressive Democrats — God love them — say "Yes, but not today". What the hell are they doing? What is the relevance of the Progressive Democrats Party if it cannot do this? What does it matter if the Bill gets through Second Stage? We all know it is a declaration of liberation. There are 18 sitting days left, so we cannot get through the detail between now and Easter and we will be on the hustings after that.

What will Progressive Democrat representatives say to the people of Ballybrack or Booterstown or Blackrock? Will they say they are in favour of liberty, but not today? What will my constituency colleague do? This is the man who guaranteed that he would be either radical or redundant. He had better start looking for his P45.

This is a good Bill. It is a clever Bill. I am proud to be a member of a party that has in its membership probably the best parliamentary draftsman available to the Houses of the Oireachtas. I have worked with him before and my friend and colleague Deputy Brendan Howlin has worked very cleverly to push the limit of liberation up to the very limits of the Constitution as it exists. We are veterans of the struggle for the liberalisation of this Republic. Let it not be forgotten that we lost the first referendum on divorce. Let it be remembered that less than 0.5% of the vote carried the constitutional amendment in 1996. However, the most recent opinion poll stated that 75% of the population had no problem with the legalisation of divorce. Family life has not collapsed. Children are still loved and told stories while being put to bed. If we enact the Civil Unions Bill 2006 — we cannot do it now but a Labour Government will certainly do it — then we will create the aura of confidence that will enable us to put into the Constitution the very rights we want to give effect with this Bill.

I implore Deputy Fiona O'Malley and my colleague in the Dublin South-East constituency to stand up for the rights they guaranteed to give people and for vote for this Bill on Second Stage. I implore her to do what her father did and stand by the Republic.

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