David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Bacik in commending the Government on its very clear and concise wording for the amendment, which leaves no doubt. However, I do not think the amendment was necessary because it seems to me that the Constitution is perfectly open to same-sex marriage and, as I have said, this was demonstrated many times in this House and as long ago as 1967 by the then Attorney General, Declan Costello, who pointed to the fact that the vagueness of the wording left it open to marriage of persons of the same gender. There has been some case law but the Constitution is a developing organism and continues to live and reflect the conditions. It does not reflect the conditions simply of 1937.

When 80% of the Irish people want same-sex marriages to be approved, one has the overwhelming bulk of popular opinion supporting this. I am glad there will be a debate and I hope it will be an informed and reasonable one. I heard our colleague, Senator Rónán Mullen, on the wireless yesterday. He raised the issue of children and this do not hit me with a baby in my arms kind of thing. However, 25% of children are born outside marriage. Grandmothers and mothers, two women, raise children and nobody loses their wig over that one, so I am not sure what he is talking about. He said he was all in favour of equality but I did not notice that when he spoke on the civil partnership legislation and when he, with some of his other colleagues who disgraced themselves, tabled some of the most obscene amendments I have ever seen in this House. I remember hearing him on RTE saying that gay people wanted children as fashion accessories. That may be his idea of a balanced argument but it is certainly not mine.

I look forward to a debate and I hope people will register to vote and that young people will come out to vote because I do not buy this 80%:20% figure as a final result of the referendum. I think it could be lost by people being apathetic, by people on the other side raising all kinds of scares and by the intervention of the church. I appeal to people to get active in this debate, to register to vote, to talk to their families and to make contacts in the country where there is a resistance to this kind of idea. I think it would be very good in the 21st century that Ireland at last joins the growing number of countries which accept this practice.