Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I was happy to attend the opening of new offices for the gay and lesbian equality network, GLEN, on Monday, and was happy to see the Taoiseach there. I welcomed his positive comments, indicating support for legislation to provide for civil partnerships in the future. My only reservation is that it rings somewhat hollow in that we have had positive indications previously from the Government to the effect that it wished to bring forward such legislation. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform set up a working group to examine the issues involved. I understood the group was to report in March but the Taoiseach said on Monday that it will not report until September. That means we will not have legislation before us until the autumn at the earliest. Will the Leader establish if the Government is serious about what it is saying? Will we see legislation before the House and passed before the next general election or will we just continue to hear nice comments and general support but nothing to back it up? If it is to be the latter is not good enough as far as I and the gay and lesbian community are concerned.