Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Bill, which has been a long time coming. The road to equality for cohabiting couples, and for the gay and lesbian community in Ireland has been a long one, and this is another important step in the right direction. Getting to this stage has been a tough battle and, for me, it represents a watershed in Irish society.

There has been considerable debate and protest about this Bill, and we need to clarify that this legislation is about giving legal recognition to cohabiting couples of same sex and of opposite sex, and allowing for the registration of civil partnerships as well as home protection, succession and pension rights.

When we look at the current system, and the lack of real recognition given to cohabiting couples by the State, we have to admit that elements of this Bill are ground-breaking. It makes great advances as regards protections for cohabiting couples, which are long overdue. Modern Ireland is a very different place and cohabitation has become the norm. There are currently more than 120,000 cohabiting couples in Ireland but legally, they have very few rights. These men and women have little or no legal protection when it comes to the break-up of a relationship or death of a partner. That is why it is so important to legislate for civil partnerships. It will help to resolve complex legal issues which face many cohabitants, whether they are same-sex or opposite sex. It will help them to regulate their financial affairs and benefit from pension schemes in respect of their civil partners, which was only ever available to a spouse in the past. The Bill also gives civil partners protection under domestic violence legislation, which is a very welcome addition.

While I commend this Bill for what it sets out to achieve, I believe it also neglects some very important aspects of civil partnership. Although the Bill will give a surviving civil partner the same succession or inheritance rights as a spouse, it does not address the issue of friends or siblings living together and does not give them any legal protections. This is a lost opportunity to help many family members to sort out complicated financial affairs. To give one example, there are many elderly siblings sharing a family home in this country without any proper legal claim over the property. This is especially relevant in rural areas, where farms are passed down through generations and the names on the deeds may never have been changed. There have been cases in which the death of one sibling has left major uncertainty about inheritance and ownership. This needs to be regulated in order to avoid bitter legal battles between relatives over property.

The UN Commission on Human Rights has voiced its concern about the lack of detail concerning the tax and social welfare implications of this Bill. I understand the Bill will allow cohabiting couples to avail of the same legal rights and entitlements as married couples in the areas of taxation and social welfare. However, this is not a money bill, and therefore separate legislation is needed in the form of new finance and social welfare Bills to give a legal basis to the new tax and social welfare entitlements for couples in civil partnerships. There can be no delay in implementing this legislation. These people have waited long enough.

The Bill does not refer in any real way to the custody and guardianship of children of cohabiting couples. There is no legal certainty regarding where these children stand if their parents split up and maintenance is to be paid, or if a parent dies. The majority of these children are in loving homes and their happiness and welfare must be a priority. This is a complex area which needs to be dealt with and which will throw up a wide variety of problems for children and parents in years to come if their status is not addressed in a legal context now.

Although this Bill is not about marriage, I can understand the argument made by many different interest groups for same-sex marriage. Many people feel the provision of civil partnership does not go far enough, and this is frustrating for many couples who love each other and feel this Bill does not grant them full equality through marriage. However, the Bill is a legal text. Sadly, it does not concern itself with feelings, love or the commitment made by one person to another. When it comes to love and commitment, who am I, and who are we in this House, to judge how people live their private lives or what is deemed to be acceptable? We are all entitled to our privacy and cohabiting couples in committed same-sex relationships deserve as much respect as heterosexual couples.

It is important to realise that the Bill is a major step forward in recognising the increasing number of same-sex couples in Ireland. I do not agree with the claim that this Bill only goes halfway towards equality for gay couples. Given the fact that this country that has traditionally been very conservative about homosexuality, we must take one step at a time while ensuring that equal rights are always at the top of our agenda. Countries such as Sweden, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands introduced civil partnerships a number of years before civil marriage. This happened gradually, and has been very successful.

Some people feel strongly that the failure to introduce same-sex marriage in the Bill is discrimination. I wish to make it clear that I and the Fine Gael Party do not support discrimination in any form, nor do we support any measures which would allow discrimination and marginalisation to exist in our society. Furthermore, I do not agree with people who say the Bill undermines the institution of the family and the values surrounding having children. They need to realise that it is not who we love but how we love that is important.

I recently met a man who had lost his life partner. They had been together for more than 30 years. Sadly, the man's partner had a massive heart attack and was rushed to hospital. At his bedside, the man asked whether he had the legal right to switch off his partner's life support machine and was told he did not. A long-lost relative had to be found in Australia and brought home to make the decision that this man's partner, a man with whom he had shared his life, his business and a loving relationship, had no right to make.

If the Bill is passed without amendments and without including the missing aspects I have just outlined, it will deny cohabiting couples many of the basic human and civil rights that I as a married woman enjoy. Therein lies the real inequality.

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