Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

Amendment No. 1 is different from the others in that it is asking for due diligence to be done before a Bill is brought in. It should be the norm. The Minister is acting as if it is unusual to ask for a report on the impact of a Bill. He should have done that previously. TDs from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and other TDs will troop into the House tonight without having a clue what they are voting on. We had a briefing yesterday and most of them acted very shocked. They will line up and presumably go with the party Whip, but people down the line will go to claim this and then ask them why they voted for it. I would not be too quick to do so if I were them.

The other issue is marriage. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are the two parties in particular that wax lyrical about marriage, how important it is and what a central place it has in the Constitution. In fact, they are actually taking away one of the many reasons people get married, namely, that the other person will be looked after if anything happens, legally, financially and so on. If they separate, they usually make a separation agreement. The Government is throwing that out the window.

I want to mention the O'Meara judgment.

I will not say "lying", but the Government is absolutely fooling people because in the O'Meara judgment the Chief Justice placed an emphasis on "the rights of all children, and obligations of their parents, irrespective of the status of their parents." The Chief Justice made it very clear. He highlighted the importance of this pension in addressing the financial impact the death of a parent may have on families. He was absolutely adamant that there should be equal treatment of all the people affected. The Government has decided to make this cost neutral, but that is basically to include a group and take out another group. We are going to see litigation in the future. It is very hard to see why people would not litigate, especially people who have children and then see other people who are cohabiting and do not have children, something I would fully agree with. It is completely unbalanced. It is very disappointing that the Minister has not listened to the professional organisations or to the Opposition.

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