Hi °C | Lo °C THE GAY marriage debate has sparked serious divisions in another Dublin council with battle lines this time being drawn between family members.
Councillors in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown will next week debate the thorny issue, which even Taoiseach Enda Kenny has refused to fully address.
The issue has proven so divisive that even a father and daughter have found themselves on opposite sides.
Opposite
Fine Gael councillors John and Maria Bailey are intending to vote opposite ways when the matter is debated in the council chamber on Monday night.
Both representatives confirmed to the Herald that they shared opposite views despite the family ties.
"It's a generation thing, I think. Dad has very strong views against gay marriage and that's fine. We're not going to row about it or anything," Maria Bailey said.
"We will be discussing the issue as a party on Saturday. I want to hear a bit more about the motion but at this point in time I can say I will be supporting it," she added.
But speaking to this newspaper, her father and veteran councillor John Bailey admitted that he was taking the opposite stance.
""I am very much pro-life and pro conventional marriage," he said.
"Marriage is a (means of) stability for children. They are my views on it. As a party we do not have a common line and we are entitled to take a different stance than our colleagues. We live in a democracy."
"I will listen to the arguments and maybe there will be something that I hadn't thought of before," he added.
"But my instant reaction is that I am very much pro-life, very much conventional marriage system."
Earlier this week, Dublin City Council voted in favour of gay marriage -- carried by 38 votes in favour to four against with one abstention.
hnews@herald.ie
