Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in supporting the Order of Business and the calls for a debate on EU50, which would be very appropriate.

I also welcome the statement by Pope Francis calling for the equality we all believe citizens of the world should have. As my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, pointed out, not only is it a criminal offence to love people of the same sex in certain countries, it is a capital offence in some of them. That is reprehensible. The statement by the Pope is most welcome and will, we hope, change hearts and minds.