Updates to this post can be found here and here

Ciaran Cuffe – is this what doing a deal with the devil is all about? Today on Lunchtime on Newstalk you were laying out the various reasons why it might not be the right time to vote in favour of redebating the Labour Party’s Civil Unions Bill, a motion on which will go before the Dáil in private members time tomorrow night. The Green Party voted in favour of the Bill when in oppostion in February 2007 – yes that’s last February.

Deputy Cuffe has been talking to his Government Colleagues and getting with the programme. It seems we’ll have to wait for the Zappone/Gilligan ruling – even though this was about a foreign marriage recognition and not about civil registration of same sex partnerships – different things entirely Deputy but hey you have swallowed McDowell’s previous mantra which has passed to Brian Lenihan.

But please don’t be telling lesbians and gay men that we’re going to cost money to give equality to and that figures need to be crunched. It’s lame!!! And it’s downright offensive! You ignore the sacrifices, loss, grief, pain and poverty faced by lesbian and gay couples for decades in that chestnut.

We knew that it wouldn’t be long till there was a shining example of the Greens selling out – now they are walking all over us. Ah sure there will be some lame promise or commitment to a change in the next few years and the so called wiggle room will emerge for the Greens to save face. But it’s far too late. Most lesbians and gay men have lost faith in the Greens – and whenever legal recognition of relationships is introduced I can bet that Ciaran Cuffe will be taking to the airwaves explaining why the law won’t grant full equality and offering more lame excuses. ‘Ah we cost too much, we should accept what we get, it’s better than nothing’……..