Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I misheard him. From reading the report and various submissions, I felt what was missing was the personal testimony of those raised by same-sex parents. This would have been a good beacon of how this can be debated in a meaningful way and would show the good experience children in such families had.

During that weekend, we spoke about other jurisdictions that had taken this on board, with the Netherlands being the first country to do so and now 15 countries and 15 states in the US have followed them in changing the law, with England and Wales due to follow next year. The sky has not fallen in with these changes and those countries have had very good experiences. What was really important about that particular part of the convention's work was the celebratory mood afterwards. It sent out a signal of acceptance, and that was really a very powerful signal of encouragement to take this issue on board very soon.

I understand the Government's point that referendum fatigue is a particular difficulty. I recognise that the Taoiseach has provided public support and commitment to marriage equality. It will be very important that this does not go beyond the commitment that has been given for 2015. I accept Deputy O'Sullivan's point that we must see a return on the convention's work before we have another convention doing a whole range of work. We must see delivery, otherwise there will be questions about what the process was about.

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