Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Absolutely. It is a republic. I return to the statement my party issued in our manifesto when we proposed what we would do, based on our republican ethos and building on the agenda of equality to which we are committed. We said we would address these issues and that is what we did.

I say, resolutely, to people who suggest there should be a freedom of conscience clause, that if we pass laws in this House we expect them to be implemented. If we allow a situation where people can adopt an Àla carte approach to implementing the law on behalf of the Legislature we will leave ourselves, the taxpayer and the State wide open to a claim by those who will say they have been discriminated against because an official - in this case a registrar - may, for religious reasons, have refused them service.

There has been no representation or indication of any kind regarding the freedom of conscience issue; rather there has been a positive view from people of what we are doing in this regard. This comes from the Ard Cláiritheor's office and from registrars in general, who say they are more than happy with this provision.

I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for his support. I make the general point that it is not our fault this has not been widely publicised. There was a consultation process and there was a law reform report in this area. There was a Colley report which allowed for public consultation in all these areas, concerning both cohabitants and the issue of civil partnership. That process has been going on for some considerable time. More or less, although not completely, this Bill embodies what was suggested in that regard by those two reports.

That is what we are doing. We should get on with it and not decry the fact we are dealing with two issues in one piece of legislation. There is a clear overlap in that the redress scheme for cohabitants refers not only to opposite sex couples but to same sex couples.

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