Minutes of the 12^th Meeting of the 161^st Session

7^th February 2008 ~ Kirwan Theatre ~ The Gay Adoption Debate

AND so the twelfth meeting of the year took place here in the Kirwan with Paddy Cluskey chairing. Main business for the evening was the motion ‘That This House Would Legalise Gay Adoption’. But before that we had Private Members’ Time, with John Moriarty (HLM) proposing the motion ‘That This House Regrets the Saturating Media Coverage of the US Elections’.

John told us how the American elections are simply not as important to Ireland as the main media organisations like Sky and CNN would have us believe. He said how it’s just not right that Super Tuesday was given almost a week in non-stop coverage by some networks, while arguably equally important events like the Serbian elections or the situation in Chad went largely ignored.

Lorcan Price disagreed, saying how as a country that is hugely dependent on American foreign direct investment for economic growth, the US elections are enormously important for us, particularly with some candidates proposing to make it more difficult for companies to base operations abroad in countries like Ireland.

Mike Spring agreed with John, saying how quality journalism cannot be found in media organisations simply running election coverage around the clock to gain advertising revenue.

Conor O’Brien told us how like it or not, American culture has become part of our culture and the elections in the States have increasing importance for us as the years pass.

The other speakers in proposition of the motion, you all know who you are, agreed with John, telling us among other things how American internal politics should not dictate what most of what we are shown on the news by the big business networks, while the speakers in opposition showed us how America is simply too important too ignore.

With that the motion was put to the House and ……..

AND so onto main business, and the motion ‘That This House Would Legalise Gay Adoption’. In first proposition was Dan Colley, who told us how the gays are just like the rest of us and how they can make just as good parents as heterosexual parents.

In opposition was Niamh McNally, who said how a natural, nuclear family has been the best family model for countless generations, and that we simply don’t have enough research on homosexual parents to weigh up the benefits and drawbacks.

Brian Merriman concluded the case for the proposition, saying how the only determining factors in deciding parents’ abilities should be love of the child. He also claimed homosexuals are being treated unfairly in terms of tax at the moment.

Daniel P. McCarthy concluded the opposition’s case, saying how Catholic Ireland shall rise again, or something to that effect. He told us how children, and particularly vulnerable orphaned children, should not be used as tools of social experimentation.

With that the motion was opened to the floor, and was then voted on, and with an overwhelming majority, the motion was passed. These are the minutes.