Irish Senator says marriage referendum money better spent on HIV testing
An Irish Senator has claimed it would be better to spend money ‘testing for HIV’ instead of voting on same-sex marriage
Jim Walsh left the Fianna Fail party after it affirmed its support for same-sex marriage. The Republic of Ireland is to vote in a referendum on same-sex marriage at the end of May.
Mr Walsh told the Seanad: “I met a gay man over the weekend and we were just discussing about the referendum and he just said to me: ‘It’s going to cost €21 million (£15 million) to run these referenda and to run the referendum on gay marriage.
“He said that money could be so much better spent, in his opinion.
“He said, for example, if that money were to be used to provide free HIV testing to people who are homosexual, where there’s an increase now in the numbers affected by HIV, it would be far better expenditure of money.”
In February last year, Mr Walsh spoke of “dangerous, vicious elements” in the gay community.
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