Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I support the thrust of this amendment. We should be doing much more to adjust our legislation to make same sex couples more part of our society in general, or at least make our legislation more friendly towards those couples. I would welcome anything that could be done with the legislation before us to forward that.

The Minister of State may help me regarding the only question I have. Will same sex couples be covered under section 2(9), where someone is acting in loco parentis to the child? If one member of a same sex couple is the father or mother of the child, the partner could then be acting in loco parentis to that child. Will we be duplicating the point which Senator O'Toole wants to provide for? If the section in question does not adequately cover that matter, the amendment should be included in the legislation. I would like to hear the comments of the Minister of State.