Sir, – In response to Patrick Treacy (November 5th), it is important that people are aware of what the Constitution currently says and does. The Constitution does not define marriage; the wording is deliberately vague, leaving scope for the Oireachtas to set the parameters. The Civil Registration Act 2004 is the sole piece of legislation in Ireland that confines marriage to the union of a man and a woman and there has been no case where this has been challenged in the Supreme Court.
The State is also obliged, under the Constitution, to “guard with special care” the institution of marriage, as it is the institution on which “family” is based.
Any idea that Ireland can create an innovative and unique constitutionally protected union for same-sex couples, while maintaining a differentiation from the marital union of a man and a woman, would raise many constitutional issues. Marriage would have to be defined as solely the union of a man and a woman. Would the proposed upgraded version of civil partnership be recognised as part of the “family” protected in the Constitution? Would the State have to renounce its duty to guard marriage with “special care” to accommodate this new civil partnership?
Is it worth rubbing out and rewriting the fundamentals of the Constitution simply to preserve a traditional ideal of what marriage should look like? – Yours, etc,
CONOR BOYLE,
Dublin 2.