Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator van Turnhout for putting her comments on record. Like the Minister, I attended a recent conference on this Bill at which Dr. Geoffrey Shannon spoke. He was clear on the issue. He made the point that it was doubtful that the shape of families mattered and that what was important was the stability of the relationship. He stated that this was what the research said. He criticised those who sought to misrepresent it to suit an agenda instead of respecting it. From the point of view of a child's development, the most important factor is that he or she should grow up in a loving, supportive and stable family unit, be it headed by a single parent, grandparents, step-parents, a married heterosexual couple, a female-female couple or two gay men.

I take issue with some of the language that has been used in this debate. Senator van Turnhout rightly debunked the misrepresentation of Dr. Shannon's remarks on the gold standard. Opponents of the Bill often refer to ideal families and so forth. That is unfair and stigmatising and has been used for too long to deny rights, not just to parents, but also to children. It is the type of language around matters like illegitimacy that was used against children like me who were born to unmarried mothers. It is the type of stigma that led to women being forced to give up their children for adoption and to tens of thousands of people being taken away from their biological parents because of the social prejudice to the effect that one was better off with any married mother and father than with one's own parents. A modern iteration of this is now being used against same-sex couples. It is time that we put all of that prejudice and discrimination in the past and base our views on research and on understanding what matters in families.