David Norris (Independent)

At the same time, we had in this country, by invitation of the Government, a succession of European Prime Ministers who told the Irish electorate which way to vote. We even had one in this House, the President of the European Parliament, yet when the Czech President, with whom I disagree, is brought over here we do not allow him to say his piece. That, too, is ironic.

It is even more sinister that, despite the interference by the Government in the composition of people addressing this issue, no one representing the argument in favour of militarisation of the European Union, as envisaged by the Lisbon treaty, has spoken here. The militarisation of the EU is one of the reasons I became one of the first to speak against the treaty in the House.

While I am on the issue of irony, has anybody else noticed that in recent discussions on the family and civil partnership, it has been argued by conservative religious elements both inside and outside the House that the family can only be maintained by an architecture of inequality and discrimination against other citizens? I find this viewpoint astonishing. It is also astonishing that the newspapers today report a case concerning an unfortunate young woman who took a case on the validity of a provision concerning the right to redress before the Residential Institutions Redress Board for those aged 18 to 21 years. We will have another large bill presented to us, as is appropriate, owing to the negligence displayed by the Government in negotiating the deal with the church. As regards the irony of the church lecturing about the family, let us look at the record of the Ferns Report and all the other issues and let us be a little more tentative before we attack individual citizens.