Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

When I concluded on Second Stage I said this had been one of the best debates in the past 23 years. I hope I will not have to retract that statement at the end of the evening or whenever this Bill passes.

I cannot understand this amendment and cannot put that point better than Senator McDonald did. Before I came into this House I was a member of a partnership although it was not a civil partnership. The proposed amendment suggests the Bill should be called the partnership and cohabitants non-marital relationship Bill 2010. I believe Senator Walsh is nodding in the direction that instead of his amendment deleting the word "civil" the word should be left in which might make it better from his point of view. In other words it would be the civil partnership and cohabitants non-marital relationship Bill 2010.

However, the reference to non-marital does not describe the Bill properly. The Bill is in two parts, one being the civil partnership element, the other the cohabitant element. In the Dáil we accepted the suggestion from the Opposition that, as originally initiated, the Civil Partnership Bill did not properly reflect the two distinct elements to the Bill. That is why we tabled an amendment and although we did not accept the exact amendment proposed by the Opposition, having discussed it with the Attorney General's office and within my Department, the best solution as far as we were concerned was the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009. Therefore, I cannot accept the amendment.