Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

To distinguish the right of a person to practise his or her religion from the other points made on race, nationality and ethnicity, perhaps I misinterpreted what was said in that regard and if so, that was not my intention. Regarding what Senator Bacik said, the existing section states "the religion (if any) of the applicant or each of the applicants, if they are a married couple". It has been pointed out to me that perhaps there should be an amendment to the effect that where the section states "are not all of the same religion" we could include "if any" in that regard.

I stand over the views I expressed. We are trying to anticipate any dangers which may arise where consent would be challenged. We are trying to avoid that possibility. We are not trying to privilege religion over other considerations. We are trying to acknowledge the fact that people feel very strongly about religion. It is not the same as the other criteria we have outlined. It justifies the section as proposed.

There may be a reluctance to adopt into specific religions, whether Jehovah's Witnesses or other religions which have restricted rights within their frame of beliefs. It is probably right and proper that a parent has full knowledge of that at the time of making consent. It is a situation we seek to avoid in this section.