Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I wish to acknowledge the extraordinary work Senator Norris has put into preparing this critical Bill. While I recognise that we will hear different views on the Bill, which is also important, I hope the Minister will just take it and run so that he can develop it, change it or introduce an alternative in its place, which I believe has been the intention of Senator Norris from the beginning and which is as it should be. We should see this as a progressive and innovative start.

This Bill does not constitute gay marriage or any innovative or new kind of marriage. This Bill is what it claims to be and we get what it says on the tin, namely, civil registration. It represents a necessary response to the extraordinarily varied relationships which exist and develop in modern society. It is a reflection and recognition of what is. It is an acknowledgement of a need that society at all levels has recognised. This matter has been mentioned by the Judiciary and the churches, and has obviously been discussed by politicians in various democracies around the world. It is a reality which needs to be addressed. Tonight we are taking a first important step in this regard.

As well as being a response to the varied relationships that exist and develop in modern Irish society, its need has been created by an increasingly litigious and greedy society. While in previous generations people recognised, perhaps in a non-vocal way, the importance of relationships and of people living in a house in which they had spent 30, 40 or 50 years, we now find that survivors tend to grab what is left and break it up with no recognition of the importance of a surviving partner of a relationship other than a "normal marriage".

The issues that need to be addressed are wide and varied. Many of us in the trade union movement have looked at the difficulties created by an inability to deal with pension rights in simple cases. If one partner from a married couple, which broke up after a certain number of years, got involved in another relationship and died after, let us say, 30 years, the surviving person in that subsequent relationship has no access to the pension to which he or she should have access in any normal or fair circumstances. What we are doing here is a reflection of the need for equity and fair play. We are trying to ensure that the public can enjoy fair access to property, pensions and adoption and that the laws in such areas are just. We should not bring to this discussion the emotive baggage that has destroyed the debate on gay marriage in the United States. While I should state that I support gay marriage, I stress that it is not under discussion this evening. It is easy for those who have worries in that regard to accept this Bill.

Senator Norris has done democracy and the Seanad a favour by proposing this Bill. This House was among the first fora to discuss AIDS, for example. Senator Norris has brought us a step forward by initiating this debate. I ask the House to recognise the importance of this debate and to pursue the matter in a consensual way, if possible.