What about the Government's approach?

Article 41.3 of the Constitution states: "The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of marriage ... and to protect it against attack". If the referendum proposals are accepted by the people and passed, will there be favourable measures that apply to married couples that will not apply to persons in a durable relationship? What favourable measures that apply to married couples now will continue in the event that this is passed?

The Government has consistently reiterated Ireland's legal obligations under international and European law to asylum seekers and those fleeing persecution. Indeed, we have an obligation under the temporary protection directive to accommodate persons from Ukraine. However, it emerged last week that €808,000 was spent on pets from Ukraine in the State with a contract for €248,000 for accommodation and almost €500,000 for transport. The Department of agriculture sought tenders for the transportation of pets from Ukra…

Can the Taoiseach stand over it?

Last week, Jim Meade, the CEO of Iarnród Éireann, told the transport committee that Crusheen: is not currently in the funded plan we have from the Department. It is part of the all-island review. If the decision is taken to add a station there, it could be one of the quick wins of the review. Before the financial crash, a station design was drawn up for it ... It can be done, but it is a Government decision as to whether it will be funded. Given the Minister's Department's ambitious transport emissions targets and …

That will take years. This is a quick win.

One of the key promises that the Government made in advance of the last election was around housing and its delivery. It would be churlish not to acknowledge that there has been a big increase in the amount of housing coming on board. I think we are at a 15-year high. Social housing is also being built, albeit not at the rate that the Government and I would like to see. However, there is a cohort of people caught in the middle and not being helped, a cohort without whom we would not have this State. In Clare, the t…

There is a question mark over whether Covid held the Government back or whether the Government’s response to Covid and the regulations it introduced regarding house building specifically held the situation back. People could not put a roof on a house down a rural road without gardaí being called. It seemed ridiculous at the time, but I do not want to digress into that discussion. I acknowledge that houses are being built and the number of first-time buyers is increasing, but what of the squeezed middle? When I grew…

I am talking about Clare specifically.

Are these single-income families?

One of the reasons put forward for replacing Article 41.2 of the Constitution is that it offers very little by way of concrete legal protection to women, as evidenced by the lack of reported cases where it was cited. I have learned, however, that cases have been taken against the State and that those cases were settled with confidentiality clauses in place in order to prevent them becoming a precedent. I do not know how many cases there were. There may have been very few or there may have been many. I do not know; …

But you will get an answer to the question.

In 2023, 3,285 people presented at Dublin Airport without valid travel documents. In 2022, the figure was 4,968. Under section 11 of the Immigration Act 2004, it is an offence to embark in Ireland without valid travel documents. This appears to me to be a strict liability offence. It does not really matter what someone's intention is or what the reasons are, it is an offence. If the window flies off a Boeing 737 and a passport gets sucked out, it is still an offence. It may go towards the sentence someone receives …

I can tell the Minister that it is none.

The Minister is conflating two slightly different things. One is a requirement to have a passport when embarking in the State and the other is the right to claim asylum. I am not saying that those who arrive without a passport do not have the right to claim asylum. They do. However, they are still subject to the laws of the land while claiming asylum, including the requirement to present a passport on arrival. It certainly is the case that millions of people throughout the world flee countries without passports but…

There were 13 last year.

The fact that Committee Stage is being held in the Dáil Chamber rather than in committee rooms, as normally happens, makes it somewhat more formal. Normally in a committee room there is a possibility for an exchange with the Minister. Will there be such a possibility or do we just ask questions now and hope they will be answered at some point in the next three or four hours?

The Minister is a legal academic and he brings that strength to his position. It is without doubt that a constitutional referendum, if accepted, will introduce changes to the legal regime. As I am sure the Minister will be aware, the issue of recognition of foreign marriages is one in which there has been very heavy litigation in the Irish courts, including in the case of HAH. I would like to ask a question about polygamous marriages, an area of very heavy litigation. What impact, if any, does the Minister anticipa…

I am quite happy to allow the Minister time to respond.

It is one thing to say it will not have an impact but I struggle to see how recognising durable relationships will not have an impact regarding polygamous marriages, regardless of whether we recognise them as marriages for Irish purposes. It is difficult to envisage how we would not recognise them as durable relationships in the countries of origin. It may be that we are going to make a very clear legal distinction whereby we will recognise what are durable relationships in the country of origin, with family bonds …