Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. I directly clarified with Dr. Shannon a quotation from the Child Trends brief which refers to the two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage providing the best environment. The claim has been made that that is not applicable to any consideration of a same-sex couple in marriage or a heterosexual couple in marriage. It seems strange to ask us to believe that despite that the international weight of evidence shows strongly the benefits of marriage, as opposed to lone parenting or cohabiting - with great respect and support for people in all those situations - the only situation that can achieve the parity with marriage is a situation where the child does not have access to the father and mother. That is stretching credibility. None of it takes from the essential proposition. We are certainly not talking about standing in judgment on any person's parenting. On the contrary, we are talking about identifying what works best most of the time. Even that is a separate issue from the core identification of a child's rights, especially the right not to be deprived in advance or deliberately of the complementarity of a father and mother relationship in their lives.

The amendments I have proposed do not seek to rule out any situation. They seek to require a social preference rooted in an authentic understanding of the child's best interests, not the politically correct understanding of the child's best interests I have criticised the children's rights lobby for confining itself to. I have said how I believe it is quite derelict in its duty in this regard, but it is a core element of trying to secure a child's best interests. Both Dr. Shannon's quotations directly confirmed to me by himself, both what he was quoted as saying in 2008 and in the Child Trends brief, various other studies which have examined this issue and a true and thorough analysis of the Convention for the Rights of the Child, not just looking at the bare front page of it but looking at the travaux préparatoiresbehind it, all support the contention that some of us have been making in the Seanad that one cannot simply ignore the right of a child to a father and mother wherever possible. The State should never countenance any interference with it except where the best interests of the child would dictate otherwise.