Seanad debates

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

3:00 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second the amendment to the Order of Business put forward by my colleague, Senator Quinn.

I draw the attention of the House to a debate on Radio 1 at lunchtime on Saturday about gay marriage. There were three people opposing gay marriage and two, including Senator Zappone, supporting it. This seems to be odd. Even as an interpretation of the McKenna judgment, if one considers that 66% of the people are in favour of gay marriage, it was three to two. That is supposed to be balance on Radio 1. The Seanad was also represented by Senator Rónán Mullen who did his usual thing of saying, "Let us treat everybody with respect" but then invaded against what was described as "the Government's twisted legislation", which did not seem to me to display all that much respect.

There is also the question of allowing the diaspora to vote in presidential elections.

That is an excellent idea but we did not attack the central problem of the Presidency, which was addressed at my instigation by the Constitutional Convention. A total of 97% voted in favour of extending the method of nomination and the Government ignored it.

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