Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, to delete lines 18 and 19 and substitute the following:

" " 'body' means the Executive or a religious body or a philosophical and non-confessional body;

'philosophical and non-confessional body' means a body which has as one of its functions the celebration of marriage, and which, for the purposes of this Act—

(a) has been performing marriage ceremonies for a period of at least five years, and

(b) at least twenty couples have participated in the marriage ceremony of the body, and

(c) these marriages have been solemnised by a registrar and registered in the register of marriages, and

(d) at least one of these marriages has been registered in the register of marriages at least five years before the date of an application under section 54;".".

I thank Senator Norris for his kind comments and support for the Bill. He is never obstreperous in this Chamber. I also thank other colleagues for their supportive comments on the previous amendment.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Burton, to the House and I am very grateful to her for indicating her support for this Bill on Second Stage and for being so supportive of it during the process of coming to Committee Stage. I also thank her officials who have been extremely helpful and the staff in the Bills Office who have been very helpful on the drafting side.

As colleagues have said, it is an unusual process that a Private Members' Bill would be introduced during Private Members' time in the Seanad and would then proceed to Committee and Report Stages in Government time in the Seanad with Government support. I understand that was formally approved at Cabinet yesterday. It is a very good day for the Seanad that a Bill of this sort, that was introduced as a Private Members' Bill will finish in the Seanad with Government support and will then proceed, I hope, speedily through the Dáil, sponsored by the Minister, Deputy Burton. I thank her once again for her support. I am delighted about this. I have also thanked the humanist association for the initiative it has taken on this and particularly Brian Whiteside who has been extraordinarily helpful on this.

I wish to give colleagues a context for these amendments. Everyone is aware that the purpose of the Bill is to amend the Civil Registration Act 2004, the Act which regulates the registration of civil marriages. Under the current version of the Civil Registration Act, the only people who can solemnise or celebrate legal civil marriages are either HSE registrars - who only work Monday to Friday as we know, and that is not in any way to denigrate them it is simply the fact of the matter - or members of a religious body. "A religious body" is defined in the Act to mean "an organised group of people, members of which meet regularly for common religious worship". That definition has enabled quite a large number of religious bodies to apply for and obtain registration for individual members. This issue came up on Second Stage when colleagues asked what organisations were included. If one goes to the website groireland.ie, the website of the registrar general, one will find a register of solemnisers which contains the list of names and addresses of the individual members of the religious bodies and of the HSE who are authorised to perform civil marriages. One will also find the list of the religious bodies which constitute quite an extensive list. It includes the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland but also quite a number of very small churches, some of which are very local churches; the Gospel Hall, Skibbereen jumped out at me, the Spiritualist Union of Ireland, of which we have spoken, the Pagan Federation of Ireland, Riverside Gospel Hall, quite a number of very small ministries which have applied and obtained authorisation. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and so on have authorisation. Quite a wide range of groups is covered.

An issue arose on Second Stage about scientologists but I do not believe they are included - they are not on that list but a wide range of other groups is included. Clearly the definition excludes members of the Humanist Association of Ireland who, in practice, for many years now have routinely been conducting both funeral ceremonies and humanist wedding ceremonies, but those humanist wedding ceremonies have no legal status. Couples who wish to have a humanist wedding must in addition to the humanist celebration also go, as everyone in the Gallery knows, to a civil registry office and a registrar to have their marriage celebrated legally, to give their marriage legal effect.

The fact that humanists and other non-religious bodies were excluded from the definition in the Act is clearly out of line with the current situation in Irish society where the proportion of couples choosing a non-religious civil wedding ceremony has dramatically increased from 6% in 1996 to more than 23% in 2006, and there have been further increases since. The CSO has stated that this year for the first time the number of non-religious wedding ceremonies conducted by HSE registrars may exceed the number of religious ceremonies. During yesterday's debate with the Minister, Deputy Quinn, on patronage, we noted the new census figures on the number of non-religious, which has now gone up to 270,000. Those who say they have no religion are the second biggest group after the Catholic Church in terms of faith and belief in Ireland now. The 2004 Act no longer reflects the changing reality of Irish life, whereby large numbers of people are not members of religious bodies and do not wish to have their wedding celebrated through a religious body. I digressed somewhat to give the context of the amendments and I apologise for that. I wanted to explain how we got to put forward these amendments.

When I introduced the Bill on Second Stage on 2 Nov 2011, the text was to simply change the definition in the Act which currently states an authority, meaning the HSE or a religious body, and to include also "a body designed by the Minister". In a very naive act of drafting, I thought perhaps this would mean that the Minister could then designate bodies such as the Humanist Association of Ireland to be authorised to apply for authorisation for its members to conduct legal weddings.

However, although speakers on both sides universally supported the Bill on 10 November 2011, many speakers, including the Minister, quite rightly expressed the view that specific criteria would need to be provided in the Bill to guide the decision as to which non-religious bodies could apply to have their members conduct legal wedding ceremonies. Coming away from that debate, I thought the simplest method of dealing with this issue would be to do what Senator Mooney has done, and I am grateful to him for tabling amendments, which was to name the Humanist Association of Ireland as another body. In amendment No. 2, Senator Mooney has proposed a change to the definition of "body" such that a " 'body' means an authority or a religious body or the Humanist Association of Ireland". That seemed to be the most straightforward means of amending the Bill to ensure it would do what we all want it to do, which is to enable members of the Humanist Association of Ireland to perform legal ceremonies. However, after a great deal of discussion with the Registrar General and others, including colleagues and the Minister's officials, and following representation from groups and individuals other than the humanists who might at some stage wish to apply for authorisation, I came to the conclusion it would be preferable not to name any one organisation in the Bill. I stated this on Second Stage to explain why I had not done so originally. There is also a clear danger that if we were to name any one organisation in the Bill other organisations might claim discrimination and might launch constitutional challenges. With all of these issues in mind we examined how best to draft or develop a set of criteria to cover the Humanist Association of Ireland and potentially cover other groups which may wish to apply in future, without being too broad because we are speaking about the very important function of the solemnisation of legal marriages.

This is why in amendment No. 1 and those amendments grouped with it the new definition being provided for "body" means the "Executive", which is the more correct summary of the HSE, "or a religious body or a philosophical and non-confessional body". This definition is not plucked from the air but already has legal status under article 17 of the Lisbon treaty. It is used in the dialogue process between the European Commission, the Parliament and the Council and groups such as the Humanist Association through the European Humanist Federation and Atheist Ireland. The phrase "philosophical and non-confessional" already has status and this is important. Article 17 of the Lisbon treaty provides that the European Union respects and does not prejudice the status under national law of churches and religious associations or communities in the member states and that it equally respects the status under national law of philosophical and non-confessional organisations. We have used this phrase as the short version of a body that may apply for authorisation under the Act.

Philosophical and non-confessional bodies are further defined to provide specific criteria with which a body must be able to comply to obtain authorisation for its members to conduct legal weddings. Amendment No. 1 to section 3 provides that the body must, for the purposes of the Act, have been performing marriage ceremonies - clearly these will have been non-legally binding marriage ceremonies - for a period of at least five years. The Humanist Association of Ireland has been doing so for more than five years. At least 20 couples must have participated in the marriage ceremonies, and these marriages would have had to have been solemnised by a registrar and registered in the register of marriages. This means we are speaking about at least 20 couples who have had not only a humanist wedding ceremony but also had their wedding lawfully solemnised at a HSE registry office with at least one of the marriages registered at least five years prior to the date of application. The criteria are rigorous and this is an important point to make. It means people will not apply lightly for authorisation, or at least they will not be granted it lightly. It is important that these criteria are specific, but they are also fair and will serve to reflect the reality of modern Ireland.

I have dealt with amendment No. 2 tabled by Senator Mooney to explain why even though it may seem a simpler option it is not. The preferable option is the route we have taken in amendment No. 1. To quickly run through the other amendments, amendments Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 8 make the same technical change to add "philosophical and non-confessional body" after "religious body". Amendments Nos 5 and 7 are tabled by Senator Mooney and I have dealt with them. Amendments Nos. 10 and 11 are also technical amendments to make the necessary changes to other provisions of the 2004 Act to include "philosophical and non-confessional body" alongside "Executive" and "religious body".

I am gladdened to hear everyone in the House is supportive of the principal and purpose of the Bill. The amendments are to give greater detail and more specific criteria on how we can achieve this purpose and how the Humanist Association of Ireland can apply for authorisation for its members. I am sorry for taking so long to explain it but because the amendments are technical it is important that colleagues are aware of their context, the reason this route was chosen and the reason for the specific criteria.