Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Bill makes provision to accommodate this issue. We need to discuss the matter on Second Stage and come forward with a detailed discussion on Committee Stage. There is unanimity in the House in terms of seeking to achieve the objective of both providing standards that follow best practice and at the same time trying to deal with the interim position of many couples, in so far as we can. It might not be possible to accommodate all of them.

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