Results 6,221-6,240 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: While Deputies may find it funny, we are working on it. Of course I acknowledge that many same-sex couples seek full equal status with opposite-sex couples by having the option of marriage extended to them. I respect that ambition but legislative reform is possible only to the extent permitted by the Constitution. On the question of constitutional reform — I want this point made as a...

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: Equally, the Irish Human Rights Commission-commissioned report on the rights of de facto couples offers the view that, while desirable to anchor any future legislation in this area, constitutional reform is not prescribed under our international obligations. My view is that it is beneficial for those in cohabiting relationships, and for society, to provide a legal framework of recognition...

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: An opposite-sex couple may want to stay outside the legal marital relationship but may nevertheless want to create some mutually enforceable rights and obligations in their dealings with each other and with society in general. On the other hand, as the law stands, gay and lesbian couples are excluded from marriage and cannot make a full legal and social commitment to each other. Just like...

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: It says nothing with regard to non-sexual relationships. It turns its back on the concept of civil partnership and states that there should be only civil unions for gay and lesbian people, and then deals with the matter in what I believe is an unconstitutional way. Rather than suggest the Bill is the answer to all our questions, which I do not believe it is——

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is seriously flawed but I am not making that point. I am not nit-picking. I am suggesting there are serious strategic errors in the Bill and its orientation, if I may use that phrase with regard to it. Let us all sit down and spend the time needed to get this right. There is no rush to get it right before the election. It is far better to put in place a decent law, even if it takes...

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is. A series of things are wrong with it.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: I will. For example, the Deputy attempts to decide the Zappone case in section 5.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: I know when people are grandstanding.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: This is grandstanding. This is the first Government——

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——-to bring in an Equal Status Act, an Employment Equality Act——

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——-and all of the measures to which I referred, which were designed to give fairness to gay and lesbian people. It was the first and only Government to do it.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: Labour was in Government from 1992 to 1997 and achieved nothing in this area.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: Despite having a full-time Minister for Equality and Law Reform, it achieved nothing tangible for the gay and lesbian community.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy keeps repeating it is not true but I tell him it is.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: All of the legislative innovations, including Mr. Charlie McCreevy's huge steps forward in regard to inheritance law and taxation, which were done in part for the gay and lesbian community, have happened on our watch and not on the Labour Party's watch.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: The suggestion that this Government has achieved nothing, is being hypocritical, is avoiding the issues or is afraid to deal with the issues is simply untrue.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is simply untrue. The Bill is a lazy-minded, ten section effort to achieve what a Bill in the United Kingdom took 264 sections to achieve.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is lazy-minded grandstanding. That is the first point. The second point is that the Bill does not address the position of cohabitants, which the Law Reform Commission suggested should be reformed.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is not a separate issue. It is the same issue.

Civil Unions Bill 2006: Second Stage (20 Feb 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is the same issue, namely, there are people in our society who are not in a position to enter into a marriage, for one reason or another, but who want to have legal recognition for the attributes of mutual dependency which arise out of their relationship. The third point is that the Bill assumes the only set of recognition principles this House will make available to anybody is a status...