Irish civil partnership bill passed

On Monday Irish President Mary McAleese signed the groundbreaking Irish Civil Partnerships Bill into law, providing Irish gay couples most but not all of the rights of marriage.

The Irish gay community says that the bill, although welcome, does not provide their relationships full equality with other Irish citizens.

The bill will make civil partnerships available to same-sex couples, but it also makes them available to unmarried heterosexual couples, and also to cohabiting companions who are in non-sexual relationships. So to call the bill a “gay partnership bill” is misleading, say critics, because civil partnerships are not confined to gay and lesbian Irish citizens.

This bill is certainly welcome, but it creates a whole new class of Irish citizen, who has most -- but not all -- of the rights afforded to married heterosexual Irish citizens as a matter of course,” Brian Finnegan, editor of GCN, Ireland’s premier gay and lesbian newspaper, told the Irish Voice.

“If we’re not celebrating it’s because you really shouldn’t celebrate being second best, because then you’ll be given third best. Instead you persevere until you’ve achieved real equality.”

The new rights the bill include protections and obligations across areas such as protection of the couple’s shared home, domestic violence, residential tenancies, succession, refugee law, pensions, taxation and social welfare. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said it was “one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation to be enacted since independence.”

Although the bill gives heterosexual couples new options, it’s believed that most will still prefer to get married rather than commit to a civil partnership, since marriage would give them better legal protections. 

The bill was passed after 23 hours of groundbreaking Seanad (Irish Senate) debate on the nature of love and marriage.

“It was really an unprecedented debate for the Irish government,” adds Finnegan. “You can download all the discussions that the government had on love and marriage law on our website.”

What’s really remarkable, says Finnegan, is that same-sex partnerships now enjoy cross-party support in both houses of the Dail  (Parliament). The speeches in the debate before the bill was adopted illustrate just how far Ireland has come in recognizing diversity and promoting equality, and Irish public opinion polls show that the vast majority of Irish citizens want to see essential fairness for same-sex couples.

It’s important to clarify that the bill makes no distinction between sexes, Finnegan adds. Although celebrated by gays in Ireland as a breakthrough piece of legislation, most see it only as an important step towards eventual “gay marriage equality,” something the bill stops short of.

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Nster.com