David Norris (Independent)

I join Senator Ormonde in asking again for a debate on the Lisbon treaty, although not quite in the light she wants it. I would like a more balanced debate and I look forward to an opportunity to provide some of that balance. We have not had a balanced debate on the matter in the House. I will say more about that later.

I am very grateful to my colleagues, including Senators Fitzgerald, O'Toole, Boyle and others, for commenting on the absence of legislation about civil partnership. This is extraordinary, and the remarks of the Minister, Deputy Gormley, last night are very worrying. They at least prove I was right to remove my Bill as a mark of the distress I feel at the contempt with which this subject is being treated. The House was clearly misled.

It is not good enough to say we will now have it in September and it was affected by a change of Government. It cannot be just that as we were told the matter would be resolved by 31 March, which was well before the change. We have not got the heads of the Bill yet. We were told clearly and categorically that we would have them, and this is necessary for us to have the debate.

It has also been suggested that the problem may be due to changes in the Cabinet, particularly in the post of Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. It is more than a decade since we had a debate in this House which led to decriminalisation in this regard. The then Fianna Fáil Government distinguished itself, and in particular the then Minister, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, in her strong cry for liberty and equality. This was reinforced subsequently by the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern.

The remarks of Deputy Bertie Ahern on that subject in that debate were recently resurrected. A group of people from various parties came out with equally regressive attitudes. I will say without naming anybody that one of the most vociferous people there subsequently approached me and told me he had revised his opinion in light of the fact that his son told him he was also gay. There is not a single Member whose extended families are not touched by this. We should show a little human decency in this regard.