Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----he would know the basis on which I am supporting it. He can ask the proposer of it if he intends that it be a mother and a father. My interpretation of it is that this is what is intended by the reference to "two parents".

There is overwhelming evidence against what is being done here. Everybody knows it is being done for a singular reason, namely, to assist the referendum. My reason for objecting to all these sections dealing with the donor-assisted human reproduction is that it should have been on hold for much greater in-depth conservation, debate and analysis, including the effects on children in all the different strands of the diversity of families. The Minister is very strong on the issue of diversity, but in the referendum she is trying to change that. This particular one challenges that notion and I would qualify it by saying that not all family types have the same outputs in general for children. That is not to say that children cannot be raised well in the various diverse forms of family, but children are at a great risk within some more than others and all the socio-research shows that they perform best in the married family.