Govt didn’t look at implications of same-sex marriage – former Taoiseach

Former Taoiseach John Bruton said the Government should have given the issue of same-sex marriage more thought before pushing ahead with a referendum.

Mr Bruton said he felt more time should have been given to look at the effects of same-sex marriage on children.

Speaking on Newstalk’s Moncrieff show on the day of Ireland’s first civilly-recognised same-sex wedding, he pointed out that he had stayed out of the marriage debate but said “on these matters I’m quite conservative”. 

“I wouldn’t have moved so quickly, I think,” he said. “Not that I think that we mightn’t have arrived at the same destination, but I think maybe we could have had white papers and green papers and things like that looking at the whole context here of the implications for children and the implications for the long run and what the institution is about, because to some extent I think a wedding’s become a celebration of the individual, rather than the contracting of an agreement for the benefit of society.” 

Forgiveness

Interviewed in connection with his new book, a collection of essays and lectures entitled Faith in Politics, the former Fine Gael leader said he was strongly influenced by the Gospel message of forgiveness. “I think that that’s very important: keeping a grudge and looking for revenge are not only entirely unproductive and bad for you, they’re also wrong for society.”

Arguing that politicians should be influenced by their religions if it means their religiously-formed ethical views restrain them from doing things they should not do, he also said politicians shouldn’t crudely make policy based on religious instruction. 

“I think it’s very clear that a politician should not take instructions from his Church in what he’s doing as a politician,” he said, continuing, “but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t listen to what the Church is saying and why it’s saying it” before making a decision “that takes those considerations into account”.

“There is a very good secular case for most of the things that most of the Churches are saying a lot of the time,” he observed.