Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I congratulate Senator Bacik on introducing this important legislation and thank all parties in the Seanad for their work on it.

In Ireland, we rightly value the institution of marriage. We recognise it in our legislation and acknowledge it socially. When two people make a public commitment to each other by way of marriage, it is a cause of great celebration. It is one of those occasions when not only do people wish to have their family and friends around them, but also wish to celebrate in a manner which is appropriate to their belief system.

The proposed amendment to the Bill before us seeks to widen the circle of belief systems whose facilitation of the celebration of marriage are formally acknowledged in our registration system. I concur with the comments of Senators Hayden and Walsh on the importance of marriage, in particular for the children of marriage and on the need for the State to be sensitive and caring towards people who are married. It must be acknowledged that many marriages do run into difficulty. Expert mediation can be extremely helpful to people experiencing such difficulty, in particular in avoiding expensive legally-based adversarial procedures. What often does the most damage in terms of the break-up of a marriage is intense adversarial legal proceedings involving a couple who were previously sufficiently in love to commit to marriage, which is extremely difficult for the children of that marriage because most children love their mothers and their fathers and do not want to see them in dispute.

On the technical element of amendment No. 1, the purpose of the amendment is to extend the definition of "a body" in section 45 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 to include a "philosophical and non-confessional body". The Bureau of European Policy Advisers was established in the 1990s by the then President of the European Commission, Mr. Jacques Delors, to facilitate dialogue between churches and communities of convictions and the European integration process. Article 17 of the Lisbon treaty has lifted that dialogue from good practice to legal obligation, enshrined in primary law. Article 17 provides that the EU respects the status under national law of churches and religious associations in member states and equally respects the status under national law of "philosophical and non-confessional" organisations and that the EU shall maintain and open, transparent and regular dialogue with these churches and organisations, thus the recognition of philosophical and non-confessional bodies contained in the Lisbon treaty provides guidance as to the most appropriate way to address the objectives of the Bill.

The Lisbon treaty does not include a definition of a "philosophical and non-confessional body" but it is appropriate to devise such a definition solely for the purposes of the Civil Registration Act 2004. The definition is intended to establish the bona fides of bodies wishing to solemnise marriages, to require that such bodies have a substantial tradition or track record of providing marriage ceremonies and to ensure that such ceremonies are taken seriously by all concerned in that they have been registered in the civil register following solemnisation by a registrar under the provisions of the Civil Registration Act 2004. I consider that the amendment provides for adequate safeguards in regard to these matters and I am happy to accept it.

As stated by Senator Bacik, a register of bodies authorised to solemnise marriages currently exists, which register is available on the website of the General Registrar's Office. The register includes a wide number of churches and religious and organisations, including the Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic Church, the Blanchardstown Baptist Church, the Pagan Federation of Ireland, the Spiritualist Union of Ireland, the Six Principles Baptist Church of Ireland, the Salvation Army and so on. This Bill seeks to extend that definition in line with the European treaties to include and acknowledge the humanists as people who perform marriages and to recognise in the conditionality that is set down that we mark that this is a serious and solemn power being given to a religious, philosophical or non-confessional bodies. Hence, the conditionality which we feel to be appropriate to underline and mark the solemnity of the celebration of marriage and the important function carried out by people who are solemnisers.