THE LABOUR Party will seek to pressure the Government into publishing a civil union Bill for same-sex couples by retabling its own legislation on the issue before the Dáil’s summer recess.
The Government had pledged to publish legislation last March which would extend many of the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. However, a number of legal problems have held up progress on the Bill, which is still being examined by the Attorney General’s office.
It is understood that at least one of several issues is whether the 200-page Bill conflicts with a provision in the Constitution which pledges to “protect the institution of marriage against attack”.
Green Party leader John Gormley said recently that work on the Bill had been “demanding and painstaking” and that it was better to get the legislation done right rather than done quickly.
However, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said over the weekend that he intended to retable the party’s own Bill which has been twice voted down by Fianna Fáil-led governments.
“We are taking this step because of the failure of the Government to honour its promises to introduce similar legislation of its own,” Mr Gilmore said.
“The Government has promised to introduce its own legislation on civil unions, but so far it has confined itself to excuses and delaying tactics. One thing is becoming clearer – they have no intention of introducing equal rights for same-sex couples to the extent that they are guaranteed in Labour’s proposed legislation.”
He said Brendan Howlin would retable Labour’s Bill before the end of this session unless the party gets evidence that the Government is going to speedily introduce legislation to guarantee “full and equal rights for same sex couples”.
Yesterday the Green Party’s Government spokesman rejected the Labour leader’s comments.
“This Bill is immensely complicated and his comments are unhelpful,” the spokesman said. “If you look at the skeletal nature of the Bill which Labour has offered, you will find that it is totally inadequate. If anything, it would cause considerable hardship and chaos for same-sex couples.”
The Government’s new Bill is expected to allow same-sex partners who form a civil partnership to avail of marriage-like benefits in a range of areas such as property, social welfare, succession, maintenance, pensions and tax.
However, it will not provide any right for same-sex couples to be considered as joint adoptive parents, despite a strong campaign by gay equality groups.
It will also contain major changes for both same-sex and opposite-sex cohabiting couples who choose not to formalise their relationships, but who have been living together for at least three years, or two years if they have children.
This will involve a new “safety net” redress scheme for cohabitants who could apply to court for financial relief at the end of a relationship or death, but only if they can show they were economically dependent. The court will be able to make a number of orders in areas such as maintenance, division of pensions and property.
