Brendan Ryan (Labour)

As I said on Committee Stage, this should have been a good news Bill which would have seen us trying to persuade the Government to be even more generous. Instead it has, in both Houses, shown a mistaken judgment by the Government that sought to introduce scientific clarity in a naive way. I do not believe science is as developed as that. If one believes in science one believes in the scientific method, which means one considers the evidence as it evolves. The evidence, now, is that the three tests are not conclusive and people can be infected yet not be detected through these methods.

I believe this Bill will, sooner or later, lead to high-profile embarrassment because somebody will turn up, clearly infected and with the support of medical consensus to that effect, who had not made a claim up to that point and will be denied compensation.

As I said on Committee Stage, I admire and compliment the generosity of the Government's definition of partnerships. It is a good day for the country and for the recognition of the realities of life and who matters in people's lives, as Senator Glynn correctly said. We will have to recognise those realities as a society, perhaps in a more formal fashion, hopefully in the not too distant future.