Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

This is not an easy day to stand up and speak when one hears such differing views across the floor. However, it is an important day for Ireland and represents a coming of age for our nation. If one likes it is Ireland growing up and maturing? That has to be difficult in light of what the previous speaker said.

I am happy to support the legislation. I would like to outline how I view this in my life and in the people I meet every day. It is important for me to make judgments that do not necessarily influence me directly, but as a legislator I have a responsibility to be good for those who have been and are still marginalised. I am a heterosexual female married in a traditional family unit. I do not feel the Bill threatens my personal status as a married person or threatens the state of marriage. I was gobsmacked to hear David Quinn from the Iona Institute speak on "The Frontline" about how threatened he felt marriage was by this Bill. He said marriage needed a good PR job just as we have healthy living programmes and advertisement campaigns on television. Why does he feel so threatened? Why is he so unconfident? I have complete confidence in marriage and that marriage will continue to be very popular.

I have not had a difficulty growing up or living in Ireland. I have been fortunate because I was part of the mainstream because I was heterosexual. However, what about those who are not from that mainstream group and are one of the approximate 10% of people who now say they are not straight and are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender? That is a large number of people potentially without basic rights who have from my knowledge of them in some cases suffered personal torture prior to coming out and also after coming out. The Bill delivers basic civil rights, as I believe I heard the Minister describe it. It provides for property rights under the Residential Tenancies Act, succession rights, wrongful death action rights under the Civil Liability Act, power of attorney rights and personal safety rights under the Domestic Violence Act. The Bill makes 130 amendments to existing legislation and from that point of view this is ground-breaking legislation.

Let us consider whom this legislation helps and some of their personal stories. Along with a research partner in St. Patrick's College in Drumcondra, I recently completed research on early school leaving. One of the groups we interviewed were lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pupils at second level and post second level. There were people who dropped out of school because they were excluded as a result of their sexuality. This is happening today in Ireland. Young people continue to suffer exclusion, bullying and homophobia. Their early drop-out rate was not for traditional reasons. It was not necessarily because of poverty, poor home support, literacy difficulties or other learning difficulties. It was because they were not understood or accepted because of their sexuality. This is about real social exclusion in school, class groups and society today. The Bill will go a long way towards normalising their sexual identity.

I also had a very humanising experience when I interviewed a fine 19 year old young man who was gay. He told me that he grew to know he was different in his sexuality at the age of 12 or 13. He said that he suffered total horror in changing rooms prior to PE class, which is a common occurrence for boys coming to terms with their emerging homosexuality and becoming aware that they are different. I found that a very important learning experience about the very basic need in our schools. We even provide for separate dressing rooms for people according to their sexuality. He had to drop out of school because of the pressure he was under as a young homosexual man. What struck me was his humanity.

I am the mother of two children. If I was the mother of a young gay son, would I not want the rights accorded in the Bill to apply to him? Yes, I would. A family friend recently told me that her son had just come out at the age of 17 and a half. It was at a difficult time during the leaving certificate mock exams and a very difficult adjustment for the family to make and the consequences were layered. There are still problems and we are talking about so many technicalities in law. Let us talk about the human reality in Ireland today. Before this boy had the courage to tell his parents, he had panic attacks which were not due to the exams, as his parents thought, but the fact that he could no longer hide the fact that he was gay. His parents had many fears such as that he might be beaten up or promiscuous. Over the course of the last three months they have worked through a lot as a family and still have a long way to go. This is all the more reason we need to help families and young people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual to be what I call normalised. It is time to live and let live. We bury our heads in the sand and risk an increase in mental health problems and suicides if we do not recognise orientation or same-sex unions. GLEN does an enormous amount of work and has evidence to support these assertions.

The Bill is a milestone and a watershed in our evolution as a nation, as a people coming to terms with our multiple identities and orientations, when we begin to legislate for the challenges facing us, take responsibility and deal with our own problems and promote tolerance and inclusivity. We should not look to export our problems, as we so often did in the past. How many gay people do we know who decided to emigrate to places such as San Francisco just to be able to live a normal life as a gay person?

There are shortcomings in the Bill. There is a glaring omission in dealing with the needs of children, a source of major concern. We have an obligation to ensure children who have parents of the same sex are treated equally in the eyes of the State. This could have come about for various reasons, be it through the use of a donor, through a previous marriage or heterosexual relationship involving one of the same-sex couple. According to CSO 2006 census figures, one third of approximately 2,000 same-sex couples have children. These children must be taken into account and provisions need to be made to ensure they are protected.

The Bill does not address the issue of adoption and guardianship, leaving the law unchanged for same-sex couples. That is a major flaw and I would like the Minister to address it. When will we see the guardianship Bill? The Ombudsman for Children, when advising us on the adoption Bill, recommended that the categories eligible to apply for adoption should be extended to include same-sex couples and that if the Bill remained unchanged, it would continue to deny certain children the possibility of enjoying a permanent and secure legal relationship with both of their parents. Change is incremental. A guardianship Bill is needed to protect the rights of children of same-sex couples.

As a member of a democratic party and a legislator, my duty is to protect the rights of all citizens, not just those of the majority or in the mainstream. For that reason, I am delighted to support the Bill and contribute in some way to making our civil society more inclusive, tolerant and stronger as a result.