Mr. Fergus Courtney:

The problem is that if Ms Toner and others in our organisation had been able to marry before they retired, they would have got the spouse pension. However, because they were prohibited from marriage, they could not do that simple thing. All we ask the committee is to recommend that we be given an exemption from that, taking into account that we could not marry. All of us have had long-term partners for a long time. We could have married our partners if the right to marriage had existed, but it did not, it is so new. We were caught twice then. We are just asking for a little break.