Rónán Mullen (Independent)

It is interesting that the Supreme Court said that this legislation might not be constitutional if there were not such an exemption. If that is true in regard to employment matters, given the implications for employment for people who might have complained about that legislation, surely it applies a fortiori that when all one is doing is withdrawing from the provision of a particular service in circumstances where people may go elsewhere for the service, there is even less of an incursion into people's rights. It should be possible to provide for legitimate differences here and I suspect the Minister is acting unconstitutionally in failing to take account of that argument.

To return to the core values that underlie this legislation, an issue we must address is the equal dignity of all people. All people are equal in dignity. It cannot ever be denied and it ought not be denied. This is not an argument between people who think that homosexuality is sinful and people who think it is okay. It wrong to characterise the argument as being based on such polar oppositions. Many people have very strong support for people's right to a private life, for their right to their values and for their right to love whom they want, but they also support the right of society to make certain values known, to support certain ideas around family and so on. On Committee Stage I will look in more detail at the some of the evidence which supports the point of view that there is a case to be made for distinguishing in a particular way and giving particular privileges to marriage over and above all comers, regardless of their sexuality or other considerations.

I have heard good speeches from both sides of the House. I compliment Senator Walsh, in particular, on taking a stand, which is not easy to do, against his friends and party. Our democracy is the poorer for the fact that the many in Fine Gael who had concerns about the Bill were not allowed to table amendments in the Dáil. Our democracy is poorer for the fact that the Bill was passed in the Dáil without a vote. It is very easy to pretend, when everybody is in agreement, that we have reached a new nirvana of tolerance, rather people have chosen to hide their intolerance behind the party Whip. A lot of people in our society who are not bigots and respect the private lives of others do not agree with the parties which were not willing to celebrate diversity.