ABOUT 25 couples will have to remarry because they did not give enough notice of their intention to wed.
The marriages will not be retrospectively validated "because the couples walked into the situation with their eyes open", Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, told the Dail last night. The couples were all informed they had to give three months' notice, she said.
They still went ahead with a form of religious ceremony without giving adequate notice. "What is open to those people is to have a civil marriage ceremony," she said in response to a question by Dr Jim McDaid, Fianna Fail's spokesman on Equality and Law Reform.
The couples, who got married last year, were told they had a right to go to court to look for an exemption. "I understand they would have got an exemption had they, any good grounds for doing so, Ms Fitzgerald said.
A spokesman for the Catholic press office said last night the onus was on couples to ensure their marriages were in compliance with the law, and in instances where this was not so, he could only assume that priests officiating at such marriages were acting in good faith. Priests could go ahead with the religious ceremony regardless, he said, but he felt few would do so.
Ms Fitzgerald, acting on behalf of the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, was introducing new measures which close a legal loophole in marriage legislation.
The new Bill will validate at least 84 marriages where couples believed they had given the required notice to the correct registrar. The Family Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 1997 was passed without opposition and now goes to the Seanad. The Bill also makes technical changes in a number of other areas, including barring orders affecting cohabiting couples.
The Minister said that between May, 1996, and this month, 17,500 couples declared their intention to marry. Of that total, 167 cases were referred to the Office of the Registrar General for review. While 42 were in order, 84 were not, and a further 41 cases "are currently being examined to establish if they meet the requirements of the Act".
Difficulties about the validity of the marriages arose with the enactment of divorce legislation and a new requirement to give to the appropriate registrar three mouths' written notice of intention to marry. Problems arose primarily because couples gave notice to the wrong registrar of marriages.
At the time "considerable steps were taken by the office of the Registrar General to advise the general public, clergy and registrars of the new notification requirements", Ms Fitzgerald said.
"A number of people came under the wrong registrar and these are the people who are being retrospectively validated," she added.
Ms Helen Keogh, the PDs' spokeswoman on Equality and Law Reform, said the "whole situation is a bit farcical". It should not have happened "that we have to validate marriages that people thought were valid in the first place. I'm sure it will come as some relief to the affected couples".