Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

These day-to-day, practical matters must be dealt with in a way that promotes justice and does not further discriminate or disadvantage.

It has been said that this is a side issue, and a minority issue. However legislators have a solemn duty to legalise and protect minorities because it is the right thing to do. It has been said that public opinion is not in favour of dealing with this on an urgent basis. According to a 2006 opinion poll, TNS Opinion and Social Eurobarometer, for which nearly 30,000 people were interviewed in September and October 2006 throughout the European Union, 44% of those surveyed supported full same-sex marriage. This ranged from a high of 82% in the Netherlands to a low of 11% in Romania while in Ireland 41% supported same-sex marriage. A poll by Landsdowne Market Research for the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network later in 2006 found that 84% of those surveyed backed a form of legal recognition for those in gay relationships. Some 51% backed gay marriage, 33% supported a form of civil partnership other than marriage and 6% expressed no opinion. It is inappropriate to suggest this is a minority issue of no consequence that does not have the backing of the majority of the country.

Fine Gael's record on the issue is unambiguous. In 2004 we produced a comprehensive civil partnership plan, following a commitment in our 2002 document entitled Visible Justice, and our proposals deal with many of the issues raised in the Bill. In the area of succession, for example, should a partner die intestate, the surviving partner would be entitled to his or her entire estate and would not be liable to the crippling level of inheritance tax that currently applies to strangers in blood, should it be applicable. If the deceased partner has children, perhaps from a previous relationship, this automatic entitlement is reduced to one third. A civil partnership will bestow a next-of-kin status upon the registered partner. The equivalent of a married tax free allowance and married mortgage allowance and treatment will be conferred on the registered couples. Similarly, this would apply in the area of workplace entitlements and with regard to property ownership.

Clearly, the Government continues to stall on this issue. When Senator Norris proposed a Bill in the Seanad over two years ago, the Government refused to support it and promised its own Bill. When the Labour Party put forward this Bill earlier this year, the Government kicked it into touch, cynically voting to delay the Bill long enough to ensure it would fall with the dissolution of the 29th Dáil. The commitments of the Government parties in their manifestos are clear. I do not have time to quote them but the Minister should remind himself of the commitment he and the Taoiseach made. It flies in the face of the Minister's performance this evening and the cynical Government amendment he put to the House to be voted on tomorrow morning.

We have already heard the contribution from Deputy Cuffe. It sums up the volte-face of preposterous proportions by the Green Party. Regardless of what dressing up Deputy Cuffe or his party leader might do in the meantime, where stands their commitment tonight?

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