Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the presence in the Gallery of the great campaigners of Yes Equality, the marriage equality group and GLEN. I acknowledge the ICCL also played a huge role in that campaign. It is a proud day today for our Republic to have this Bill before the House. I recall the day the marriage equality referendum was passed and the sense of us actually reclaiming our republic.

I pay tribute to Deputy Eamon Gilmore for putting this matter on the political agenda and ensuring it made its way into the programme for Government, to the Government for proceeding with the Constitutional Convention and to the members of the Constitutional Convention who passed a resolution to ensure the Government proceeded with the referendum on marriage equality. I pay tribute also to the entire body politic which got behind that referendum and then stepped aside and allowed the people of Ireland to make it their referendum. The leadership shown by the Yes Equality people was remarkable. It was a positive campaign. It was something unique. I do not believe that if I spend the remainder of my life involved in politics I will ever again feel anything like I felt in Dublin Castle on the day of the announcement. The colour, excitement and sense that we had reclaimed a little of our Republic was great. A huge number of people, having been failed by this country and fled it for economic reasons, came home on boats and aeroplanes from far afield to cast their votes in this referendum to ensure that this Republic, as we face into the 1916 commemorations, have a different view of what being a Republic truly means. I recall quoting that essential line from the Proclamation time and again at meetings throughout the country, that people open up their hearts to their neighbours and tell them about the lonely lives they have led and their aspirations for their partners and for their futures and families. Equal rights and equal opportunities for all our citizens are not matters to be left only to the Proclamation; these must be underpinned in our laws and Constitution.

We would be foolish to think the battle is now won. There is much yet to be achieved for our LGBT brothers and sisters and community. I reference section 37 of the Employment Equality Act which has been amended by the Seanad and will hopefully be agreed by the Dáil later this year and will ensure that members of the LGBT community and others who feel that they cannot be themselves while working in institutions funded by the State but under religious patronage will have the freedom to be who they want to be. Earlier this year the Gender Recognition Act was passed, which is monumental legislation. There is other legislation we need to work hard to ensure is enacted, in particular hate crime legislation. GLEN has been lobbying over a number of years to ensure that people can socialise as they want to and not feel under threat of attack or intimidation. For this reason, I wish to inform the House that I am beginning preparations on a national LGBT strategy, which will be important. There are many other strategies in place across the equality sphere for other people in society who need to have their voices heard and to ensure that all agencies of the State are listening to what they have to say and advancing their role in society. There are many battles to be fought for the LGBT community, including on the sports field, in advertising, education, health and so on. We need to have consultation on formulation of an LGBT strategy that looks to five, ten or 15 years hence in terms of what life will be like for our LGBT brothers and sisters.

To assume that marriage equality has ended the discrimination against gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people would be a foolish assumption. This is only the start of the conversation as to how we build a Republic of equals. There are many other groups in our society who wish, in terms of their needs, that they had that moment in Dublin Castle. I know the Traveller groups feel strongly about attaining Traveller ethnicity for themselves. There are many migrants and refugees coming here who want to feel they are part of this Republic and to have a better future. Other groups include people living in areas of disadvantage and those who suffer illiteracy. Reference was made at the Right to Read Literary Conference held in Dublin today to 17% of our adult population suffering from functional illiteracy. These are issues on which we have to galvanise ourselves. We must reassure ourselves that when we appeal to the decency and humanity of Irish people there is nothing that we cannot achieve.

I may have been very negative at the beginning of this year, and was accused of being so, when I said that this referendum could be lost. Perhaps the lesson for everybody in this House is that if we appeal to people's fears we may achieve something but if we appeal to people's humanity and their aspirations for something better and the true sense of being republican there is nothing that cannot be achieved. I congratulate those who were involved in this campaign and who made it the people's campaign. I congratulate people across this House who stood together and fought this good fight. I also congratulate the Irish people for coming out in such huge numbers to support it, in particular the young people of Ireland for showing the rest of us exactly what politics should be about and I call on everybody to strengthen their resolve to ensure that we can achieve more and do more to proclaim a proper Republic.

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