EUROPE: Europe's top court ruled yesterday that a British transsexual woman was discriminated against when she was treated as a man and refused a pension, writes Jamie Smyth in Luxembourg.
Sarah Richards, who had a sex change operation in 2001, was told by the British authorities that she would have to wait until she was 65 before receiving a pension - the standard pension qualification age for men. Ms Richard had applied to have her state pension paid from the age of 60 in line with the standard pension age for women in Britain. She was refused.
The European Court of Justice found in favour of Ms Richards, who was born a man in 1942. It ruled that the refusal to recognise a male-to-female transsexual as a woman and award a pension at 60 flouted an EU directive.
The different pension ages - 65 for men and 60 for women in Britain - do not fall under Europe's equal treatment rules.
In Ireland the pension age is 66 for both men and women so a similar case could not occur, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Family Affairs.