The Government’s Civil Partnership Bill ought to have a conscience opt-out clause, Fine Gael TD Sean Barrett has said.
In last night’s debate on the Bill, Deputy Barrett said that, while he supported the Bill, he did not believe that a registrar “who has a genuine religious difficulty with his or her conscience should be imprisoned for six months and to do so would be ridiculous in this day and age”.
He dismissed as “ridiculous” suggestions from the Government benches that if such a clause were introduced “ people in hotels would refuse to rent out a room or that people would refuse to serve meals”.
Gay couples, he said, “stay in hotels and have meals like anyone else and are entitled to so do”.
“I have never come across an instance of anyone being refused,” Deputy Barrett continued. “Consequently, putting up such arguments is ridiculous.”
He referred to a proposed amendment to the UK Equality Bill, put forward by the former Lord Chancellor of England and Wales, Lord Mackay, which was intended to protect religious conscience there, and suggested that the Government look at it and consider it.
He added that it would be “worthwhile to try to understand other people’s points of view and to relieve them of any difficulties they may have with regard to their own conscience”.
Deputy Barrett welcomed the fact that the Bill dealt with same-sex relationships, saying that the legislation endeavoured to “ensure that if something happens, such as a break-up or a death of one of the parties, there is protection for the other partner”.
Government deputies speaking on the Bill rejected any notion of allowing for a conscience opt-out clause in the Bill.
Junior Minister at the Department of Finance, Martin Mansergh, said that a conscience clause for public servants such as civil registrars to refuse to register same-sex unions on conscience grounds “would in effect amount to discrimination”.
“My view is that if one takes up a public appointment, one must carry out the duties that the law prescribes and those duties will change from time to time as the law changes. We should not give sanction effectively to homophobia for conscientious reasons,” Minister Mansergh said.
Fianna Fáil TD, Michael Fitzpatrick claimed that such a clause “would give an absolute right to discriminate against people who are registered as civil partners”.
Providing such an exemption, he continued “could lead to serious unintended consequences and the withholding of services”.
“A bank could refuse to allow a couple to operate a joint account, a restaurant could refuse to take a booking for two men or a person may be unable to visit his partner in a hospital run by a religious order,” Deputy Fitzpatrick said.
Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews claimed that the Bill would “have no negative impact” because it built on previous equality legislation and that this legislation dealt “with the issue of freedom of conscience” already. He did not specify how it did this.
Ciaran Lynch, a Labour TD from Cork, questioned the “motivation and intent” people trying to add a conscience clause. “There should be no opt-out clause,” Deputy Lynch said.
“If a person is a public servant, he or she has functions to perform. There is a separation between theocracy and democracy, and a civil partnership registration is a secular event, not a religious one,” he continued.
