Seanad debates
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage
10:30 am
David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source
Senators Mullen and Walsh, theoretically if not by their vote, also oppose marriage equality, they opposed civil partnership, they oppose just about bloody everything that marks a social advance, so it is not a great surprise to me that they are opposing this as well. The grounds on which they do so are quite remarkable. Some 36% of the births in this country are now outside marriage. What are they doing about them? Are they all rotten? Are they all wrong? Are they all defective in some way? Are the children of these marriages defective? Are these children second-class citizens? Are they properly brought up? My mother was widowed when I was five and a half. I was wonderfully brought up by a remarkable and splendid woman. I did not miss my father at all. It is rather a calculated insult to people, to the many mothers of Ireland who, like my mother, did a superb job in bringing us up. That is one situation.
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