Mr. Frank Moran:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to address them today. I am accompanied by Lucy O'Donoghue, friend and former work colleague in the Central Bank of Ireland. Lucy was the senior administrative officer with responsibility for pensions administration at the relevant time. She is retired from the Central Bank and is accompanying me in a personal capacity.

I joined the Civil Service on 12 November 1973 and became a member of the original spouses' and children's contributory pension scheme, which was compulsory for new entrants at that time. In 1988, I took up a new position in the Central Bank of Ireland. Following my appointment, there was a discussion between senior pensions administration in the bank and the Department of Finance about the transfer of my service and pension contributions from the Department in which I had worked. During that comprehensive discussion, the Department asked about my age, checking again and again whether I could ever envisage any benefit to myself under the spouses' and children's scheme. Taking all that information into account, it made a reasonable decision that it would refund the contributions already accrued directly to me and not transfer the pension to the bank, given that I was never likely to benefit from such a scheme. The position adopted by the Department of Finance was a case of the officer reading between the lines. There were no personal positions identified or divulged, but it was implicitly understood. The refund from the Department of Finance was indicative that I would never be entitled to the benefits of the spouses' and children's scheme.

I joined and stayed in the Central Bank pension scheme as I was not prepared to out my orientation. Homosexuality was not decriminalised in Ireland until 1993. Following the passing of the marriage equality referendum in Ireland in May 2015, and to ensure the entitlement of same-sex couples to the benefits of occupational pension schemes, changes were made to Part VIIA of the Pensions Act 1990, as inserted by Part 3, section 27 of the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registrations Act 2018.

Section 81L of the Act lays down the conditions for entitlement. Subsection (1)(ii) has the condition that the member married or entered into a civil partnership with that person within 36 months of the coming into operation of the Marriage Act 2015 or the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. The legislation was sponsored by the Minister for Social Protection. The changes to the law were adopted for Civil Service pension schemes and contained in Circular 18/2020 on the recognition of same-sex marriages-civil partnerships under public service original spouses' and children’s contributory pension schemes. The number of employees in the Civil Service who could benefit from the provisions of Circular 18/2020 must be very few. The original pension scheme ended in 1995, 30 years ago.

This is not a free spousal pension provision for that limited number of people who could apply. Circular 18/2020 lays out the pension contributions which are required to be paid by the applicant. With this in mind, on 24 September 2023, I applied to be reinstated in the original spouses and children's pensions scheme as provided for through Circular 18/2020. On 4 June 2024, I received a formal response to inform me that my application had been refused because my civil partnership had not taken place before 1 January 2014 as required by section 81L(1)(ii) of the Act. I entered a civil partnership on 14 April 2014. In a phone call with the director of human resources in the Central Bank, following the rejection of my application for reinstatement, I was told that "if the law is changed, we will apply the law".

These are the critical timelines in respect of the petition application. One, on 24 June 1990, the Pensions Act 1990 passed. That Act was to regulate occupational pension schemes and to provide for equal treatment of men and women under occupational benefit schemes. Two, in May 2015, the marriage equality referendum passed. Three, in 2018, the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Act 2018 passed, including changes to the Pensions Act 1990. Four, on 30 November 2020, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issued Circular 18/2020.

The critical issues are that the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registrations Act 2018 laid down conditions under which a person who was a member of the original spouses' and children's pension scheme and had left the scheme could apply to rejoin under certain conditions. These changes gave recognition to same-sex civil partnerships or marriages for the purpose of entitlement to contributory pension schemes, including those in the Civil Service. One of these conditions is that the applicant must have entered a civil partnership or marriage within 36 months of the coming into operation of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, the commencement date of which was 1 January 2011.

Thirty-six months from 1 January 2011 is 1 January 2014. Critically, the changes to the Pensions Act 1990 were only adopted by the Oireachtas in December 2018. Circular 18/2020 was not issued until November 2020. The 36-month condition in respect of same-sex civil partnerships had expired on 31 December 2013. When the 2018 Act was adopted, the conditions had already expired by almost five years. When Circular 18/2020 was issued, the conditions had expired by seven years. When Circular 18/2020 was issued to the staff of the Central Bank of Ireland in July 2024, the conditions had expired by over ten years.

The legislation must be viewed from the perspective of its intent, which is compliance with the equality requirements following the adoption of the constitutional referendum on marriage equality. I and my petition represent the equality agenda. My response to the response of the Department of Social Protection in respect of my petition P00058/24 was as follows. I point out that the response of the Department of Social Protection does not appear to recognise the timeline problem which the legislation contains. I provided the critical timelines and related critical incidents in association with my access and use of the legislation through Circular 18/2020. The Department does not claim that I have misrepresented the legislation or that it had been incorrectly applied by the Central Bank. The Department has provided no guidance to the committee as to how the issue can be resolved. It was provided with the opportunity to give a reasoned argument as to why the 36 months' requirement was included in the legislation but failed to do so. These observations were sent to the Department shortly before the dissolution of the Thirty-third Dáil on 8 November 2024.

On 19 March 2025, in the absence of the reconstitution of the public petitions committee, I wrote to the Minister for Social Protection inquiring as to what the response of the Department was to my observation. On 16 April 2025, the Department responded on behalf of the Minister to state that a three-year period was a sufficient and wholly reasonable period of time for a scheme member in a committed relationship to have regularised his or her marriage or civil status by marrying or entering into a civil partnership. The response also stated that as the 36-month period specified in section 81L was considered to be justified, sufficient and reasonable, there were no plans to remove this time period.

The intent of this legislation was to ensure that same-sex couples have equal access to occupational pensions schemes. As an individual in a same-sex relationship for more than 30 years, I welcome the equality intent of the legislation. However, Part VIIA of the Pensions Act 1990, as inserted by the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Act 2018, relating to the 36-month requirement, is flawed, discriminatory and possibly unconstitutional.