Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I thank Deputy Howlin for introducing this Bill in Private Members' time.

I am a public representative like everybody else in this Parliament and I have a simple conviction and belief that what we do here, generally speaking, changes things for the better. If I did not have that belief I am not sure I could do the job.

I believe in a political dynamic and there is a dynamic when Governments change, even when one is not necessarily a part of it. That is what is so hard to accept about what is happening here tonight. It is groundhog day. A motion has been put forward in which a Bill is being presented and it has hit the same Government wall that was there the last time. That is simply not good enough.

Last February we in the Labour Party proposed to enable single sex couples to have their right to civil union recognised in law. Our Bill was debated and received widespread support. Because our case was so strong the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell SC, was forced to manipulate the procedures of this House to avoid the embarrassment of voting down the Bill while ensuring that it would be jettisoned in the demise of the last Dáil.

I never thought I would hear myself saying this. Come back Michael McDowell, all is forgiven.

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