Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response, in which she quoted research carried out in Britain.She did not acknowledge, as I did - I did not give details of the research at which I had looked - that the problem was that the numbers were so small that anybody involved in considering the best interests of children in this type of research readily conceded that there were insufficient numbers from which to draw conclusions. The Minister, however, seemed to be quite happy to draw conclusions. The largest number I have seen is in the United States, at 520. It shows a range of areas in which children do not do nearly as well in same-sex couple relationships.