Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to second the legislation tabled by my colleague, Senator Bacik. As we all know, she has been at the vanguard of progressive social change in this country and has sponsored a considerable amount of important legislation in this House in recent years. Today's Bill is another example of trying to advance the agenda for progressive social change in this country, which I very much welcome.

This legislation, as eloquently outlined by Senator Bacik in a very lucid and comprehensible manner, was inspired by the experience of David Parris and his partner, Gerhard Scully. In my opinion they have been deprived of an entitlement that should rightfully be theirs. I recall late last year having to turn up the volume on my radio to listen to an interview given by Dr. Parris on the "Drivetime" programme on RTE. I was very moved by what he had to say and I am sure that anybody who listened to the broadcast was moved. When we listen to such an experience, we must put ourselves in that citizen's shoes and consider what we would do if we found ourselves in a situation where a clear anomaly needed to be addressed to make this country a better, more fair and more tolerant place. I am pleased that my colleague has sponsored this legislation. She did a considerable amount of work with the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to advance this legislation. I hope the Bill is not simply unopposed by Government but supported by it because this is the right thing to do.

We have achieved a lot in this country, certainly since 1993 when we decriminalised homosexuality. Following on from that, we had the Equal Status Acts and, in 2010, the civil partnership legislation. Of course we all remember the great joy in this country when the people, by popular vote, decided to give the rites of marriage to all couples regardless of their sex. Marriage equality is something to celebrate. It is something the Minister, I and my Labour Party colleagues and most people in this House, with a small exception, have worked extremely hard on.

We have unfinished business. In a way we can describe this legislation as an important housekeeping matter and, as Senator Bacik has described, it is a legacy issue. If we are to finish the business of at least aspiring to full equality in this country, these are the types of anomalies we need to address. We are dealing with an anomaly that in many ways probably was not anticipated when the legislation was drafted. How could it have been? The existing legislation is flawed and the anomaly needs to be addressed. I am happy to support and endorse this Bill because we need to remove all the remaining barriers that discriminate in this country and this is an important one.