David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This amendment would remove single persons, same-sex couples and cohabiting couples. It would be a dreadful intrusion into people's private lives. I do not understand why someone would want to poke his or her nose into other people's private lives in this way. It is odd. I am not in the slightest interested in other people's private lives, except in so far as it relates to the law. I do not understand why Senator Rónán Mullen wants to restrict the procedure because of a piece of paper. These are human beings and if they want to have children, the Senator wants to force them to get married. That is the insane argument that came about with Mr. Justice O'Higgins and a few of his confreresin the case I took in which they stated the criminalisation of homosexuality was necessary in order to force ditherers into the heterosexual camp. I do not think it works like that. I do not think all of the judges who signed it did either because one of them, within a month or two, gave a decision in a nullity case that, because one of the participants was gay, it was not a marriage. I do not understand this narrowness. It will not succeed.