Mr. Christopher Bowes:

The Deputy is referring to two groups. For people who are divorced and separated and whose former partner died, they are best dealt with by allowing them to remain within the scheme itself. The ideal situation in that case would be those amendments. There is a possibility in that scenario that someone might be entitled to, for example, the one-parent family payment, but because this is a contributory scheme, it is less likely that he or she would be entitled. The best way forward for that group of people would be to keep them in the scheme through the amendments we are proposing.

The other group of people are those who may have an entitlement to the payment on the basis of cohabitation that arose before the O'Meara judgment and might may have since ceased. The way the legislation is framed provides that entitlement only arises from the date of the O'Meara judgment in January 2024. There would be no scope for the Minister to use the backdating provisions in the 2005 Act to make regulations that allow for backdating before that point. That is the way the legislation is framed. The committee may consider the pension entitlements of cohabitants that arose before the O'Meara judgment. People may have applied for the payment and been refused or more likely they were told they were not entitled and did not apply for it. Due to the way this legislation is framed, that would have to be dealt with through some sort of ex gratia scheme outside of the scope of the legislation. The way the legislation is framed at the moment provides that entitlement can only arise from the date of the judgment.