David Norris (Independent)

This is a black day for Seanad Éireann. I am ashamed of what is happening here today, as are many Senators on all sides of the House regardless of their position on the Civil Partnership Bill 2004. I intend to withdraw the Bill to spare the shame of the Government or, perhaps, to rub it in in an ironic way. I will not be present this evening and I will not move the motion for the Second Reading.

If the Government is serious, it seems it is voting down the Bill because it considers that it would be improper to discuss it while it is the subject of a court case, while the All-Party Committee on the Constitution is examining the matter and while the Law Reform Commission's report on the rights and duties of cohabitees is being analysed. I do not believe that, however. I am prepared to go with it, but I am not prepared to have the work done by a group of people over two years treated in a contemptuous fashion by a Government that poses as democratic. Approximately a month ago, I had a meeting with the Taoiseach——