Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said on Second Stage in regard to prohibited degrees of affinity, the general policy is that the prohibited degrees of affinity will apply to all marriages, modified to take account of whether the couple is of the same or opposite sex. The issues I was addressing then were the prohibitions on affinity preventing in-laws from marrying. Those prohibitions may be outmoded and I was saying my Department and the Department of Social Protection would consider them to see if change is needed. I said also that if change was needed, we would provide for that in a separate legislative vehicle rather than in this legislation.

The Senator is correct, I did not get an opportunity to respond to the point about cousins. Cousins may marry under the law as it stands. In regard to consummation, given that we have no statutory provision in regard to consummation, there is no need to make an equivalent exception. There is no reason in principle why the courts should not continue to deal with these issues, as they always have, by considering the merits of each individual application.