David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have heard a lot of nonsense in this House but for sheer fatuousness the last contribution take some beating. Marriage has always been in change and has always been redefined. Let us forget the idea that there is some kind of absolute ideal that has always existed. That is nonsense as it has always been changing. Save me the business of controlling discussion. That is a fat one. Who are the people who got involved in the row about homophobia when RTE coughed up €85,000? The person was clearly homophobic and there is no question about it. I put on the record of the House the violently homophobic statements that person made.

Senator Walsh says that the Government is not giving equal time to the Opposition. When did any Government argue against its own legislation?I never heard such nonsense in my life. A Government is in place to formulate policy and give instrumental effect to it. It is not in place to argue the case against its own legislation. That is simply daft. Of course, it is committed to winning. What else should one expect - that it is committed to losing?

I refer to the nonsense that children will be affected. The Bill we were discussing yesterday dealt with children and it will automatically pass, about which there is no question. As the Government has the numbers and the support required, it is dealt with, done and dusted; therefore, let us forget the question about children. This Bill is about marriage equality. Senator Jim Walsh produced the token gay man. In any population group one will find 96% going one way and a few dingbats going the other. It is interesting that these gay men are produced and pop up every so often because of the McKenna judgment. As I said yesterday, the Government should seriously look at that judgment. It is frightful nonsense that all sides are given an equal share, however absurd the arguments are. This is absolute nonsense and I thought so at the time.

On the question of ideologies, I agree with Senator Jim Walsh. The Iona Institute, courtesy of Domino's Pizza and Lolick Limited, is a classic example. It is the most ideologically driven group I have come across and it is not a charity. I would be very interested to know how it receives charitable status for such a campaigning political group? What is charitable about this? In the James Joyce Centre we had to argue for years to obtain charitable status. How is it that the people concerned received it at the snap of fingers? What are the charitable commissioners doing? How on earth did a group of self-appointed ideologues receive charitable status? How is it that they are able to give two fingers to the SIPO-----