A lesbian couple have lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court against a High Court ruling that stated they did not have the right to marry in Ireland.
Drs Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan lodged their appeal yesterday on the grounds that their High Court case for recognition of their Canadian marriage was wrongly decided.
They hope the Supreme Court case could be heard before the end of 2007.
Dr Zappone and Dr Gilligan
Last December, Ms Justice Dunne delivered a 138-page reserved judgment dismissing the challenge by the couple aimed at securing the right to marry here or having their marriage in Canada recognised as valid here.
The court also held that the refusal to permit same-sex couples to marry here does not breach provisions of the European Convention on of Human Rights.
In a statement, Dr Zappone and Dr Gilligan said: "We believe that it is in our interest and in the public interest to have this issue clarified in the highest court of the land."
The couple had argued in the High Court that the definition of marriage should be developed beyond the understanding of marriage as it was at the time the Constitution was enacted in 1937.
The court had heard that Dr Zappone and Dr Gilligan married in Canada in 2003. They claimed the failure by the Irish authorities to permit them to marry here or to recognise their Canadian marriage breached their rights under the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter of Fundamental Freedoms.
They also claimed the failure by the Revenue Commissioners to treat them for tax purposes in the same way as a heterosexual married couple breached their rights.
The judge noted that in her evidence, Dr Zappone had conceded that she and Dr Gilligan were not, in relation to taxation, treated any differently from heterosexual couples who were not married. There was no discrimination between homosexual and heterosexual cohabiting couples as far as the tax regime was concerned.