Ivana Bacik (Independent)

With respect, I did not interrupt the Senator. It is true and that is the evidence that has been put before the High Court here and it is the evidence internationally. We are looking also at independent research commissioned by Marriage Equality which has not yet been published but which the ombudsman referred to as ongoing research on the experience of children born into gay relationships and raised by gay couples in Ireland. That will give us an interesting set of findings also, but in the meantime we are left with the situation where a large number of children are being raised by gay couples and they have no legal protection at present. We should not forget that one third of children in Ireland are born outside of marriage. Senator Walsh may refer to the natural order of things but clearly the natural order is changing.