Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

Naming an organisation would confine the legislation. The CSO recently published figures revealing that one in five weddings taking place in this country is civil. Not all of these will be humanist. The Minister outlined the organisations that have already been defined. That law was passed by Senator Walsh's Government. The definition that applied previously will continue to apply. If we set out criteria for every single body, religious or otherwise, the Bill would be as big as the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

I concur with Senator Walsh regarding the structures to support marriage institutions. We cannot legislate to mandate groups to do anything because it is their own business but it is a good idea to ask them to facilitate pre-marital counselling courses. Marriage is not something anyone enters into lightly. Many of these organisations already offer counselling but I have noticed that commercial groups are now providing courses for profit.

I welcome the amendments proposed by Senator Bacik and the Labour Party. We are catching up with Scotland. The first bride to tie the knot under Scotland's humanist legislation in 2005 came from County Clare. Society is changing and people are living together. We have to facilitate them because, as our legislation recognises, living together and marriage are two different things.