Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a very dangerous proposition. It is couched in language like "conscience", but it is actually nothing more than a licence for prejudice and discrimination. I am glad the Minister is resisting it. I am also somewhat disappointed that all kinds of extraneous issues are being dragged into this debate on Committee Stage. The Bill is about one thing and one thing only, namely, the right of two adults who love each other and are committed to spending their lives together to marry. That is it. It is not going to force anybody else to get married. As the Minister pointed out at the start, the Government is clearly setting out in the other legislation the freedom of the churches not to marry anybody they do not wish to marry. It is bizarre that there are all kinds of tangential, unrelated issues being dragged into this debate.