Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It will be difficult to follow that. I hoped that I would not speak after Senator Zappone. It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome the Minister to the House as a Minister who has led so strongly on this issue and on the process that has led us to this stage. It gives me enormous pleasure to lead for the Labour Party on Second Stage of the Marriage Bill 2015, a Bill made possible, as we know, by the resounding "Yes" vote in the May referendum on marriage equality. Like other speakers, I welcome very warmly to the public Gallery so many who made that resounding "Yes" vote possible - the leaders of the Yes Equality campaign, the marriage equality group, the GLEN organisation, the ICCL, and so many other groups that have campaigned for so long on LGBT rights, women's rights, groups such as USI that campaigned with the student body and made sure so many young people were registered, and campaigns such as that from the trade union movement. There was an enormous coalition of civil society groupings that came together on this, such as children's rights organisations. Groups that perhaps would not have been expected to come to the fore came to the fore and that was one of the enormous strengths of the campaign.

There are too many people to name individually and I am mindful of the Leas-Chathaoirleach's ruling on this. Gráinne Healy and Brian Sheehan are powerful spokespersons for Yes Equality.