David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ruling on this is a pointless exercise. I remember in this House and in the other House Fine Gael supporting all the Government's daft measures with alacrity. Why do we in Ireland always have this background look? The short story writer Frank O'Connor used always complain about it. We should look to the future and make it better, however different our circumstances are now.

The Minister indicated that things were changing, that legislation on adoption would be introduced and so on, and this would cater for same-sex people. I notice that the section amends the principal Act, so we actually are instituting in law that only a woman can receive this. I wonder if it would not be timely to accept suggesting "person", which would be gender neutral, and then refer to "he-she". It may only be a small number of people and families involved, but each human situation has its own great pressures. I think we should make it neutral because it does not just deal with women. Of course it is the women who give birth. It is one of the many unique and wonderful things about women. I am not suggesting that men are desperately anxious to go through that process anyway. As the situation becomes more sophisticated and more complex, we will be facing many further problems. Since there are men who are adopting, I wonder if they should not be taken into account in this Bill, because it purports to amend the principal Act to which the Minister referred and which appeared to cater for men.