Dáil debates

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Comhionannas Pósta) 2015: An Dara Céim - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015: Second Stage

 

7:40 pm

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister is leaving the House, I want to say it was lovely to be here in the Chamber to listen to his contribution because it was poignant and very effective. My contribution probably will not do any justice to the topic we are discussing.

I got married 17 years ago and I have a lovely husband. I do not think I take him for granted. I respect him. He is my best friend. I probably like him now much more than I did when we got married. When I listen to people, groups and organisations who are anti-marriage equality say that if people vote "Yes" on 22 May it will somehow redefine the definition of marriage and, probably more importantly for them, that it will somehow undermine marriages like mine, I fundamentally disagree with them. Every time somebody says something like that, the voice in my head screams "No" and I switch off.

I read a recent article in TheHuffington Post by a lady who was at a same-sex marriage ceremony. She happened to be at it without her husband and the display of commitment and passion by the two people getting married made her miss her husband and think about him extremely fondly. That got me thinking and it made me start to listen to the debates with a different ear and to view the articles in the newspapers and posts on Twitter and Facebook in a different way. It got me to think about my marriage. I listened to people who do not have access to the institution marriage and heard how genuinely committed they were to each other, and how much they were willing in public, which cannot be easy, to display their love for each other from the rooftops and their genuine need just to be the same as everybody else in this country. Perhaps there is a change because it made me think about something, which I probably take for granted every day, far more in the past few weeks than I have in the past 17 years. It has made me realise that I need to cherish something, to which I have had access all my life, simply because I have had such access. There are people in this country who do not have access but think about it and are far more passionate about displaying how they feel about it than I have been in the past. It is important for us to make sure that we take the opportunity every day to recognise how lucky we are to have access to the institution of marriage and to cherish, honour and respect it and to do all the good things we promised we would do on the day we got married.

I have decided in the past few weeks to say "thank you" to my friends, young and older, inside and outside this House, for making me change the way I feel and I make a commitment here that I will work my socks off every day and every night that I can between now and 22 May to make sure that we extend the institution, to which I have access, to every man and woman in this country who wants to marry. I want all of us to be as committed as some of the people who have been brave enough to go on the public airwaves in the past few weeks to tell us as a society how much they are committed to each other and how much they want access to something that I have taken for granted for the past 17 years.

I commend the Minister on bringing this Bill to the House and I look forward to working for a "Yes" vote on 22 May.

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