Mr. Frank Moran:

I thank the Deputy. It is a really interesting point. The legislation impacts the circular. As a former civil servant, of course the circular is the guiding principle. Certainly some of the early indications from the Central Bank were that because the circular issued as a result of legislation, it must abide by the legislation. Normally, a level of discretion would be applied. Ms O'Donoghue has much more expertise in respect of those issues than I have. I would like her to come in on this conversation.

The original pension scheme, as framed through Circular 18/2020, expired in 1995. That was 30 years ago. The number of people in the public service who would be covered by the circular, who are gay and entered into same-sex marriages or civil partnerships, must be very small. The Department of Finance, to put it bluntly, should have no concern that this is going to trickle down and result in many people knocking on the door and looking for coverage. The numbers must be really small.

The other side of it is that people did not know about it. The contradiction was that the legislation was introduced in 2018. It set conditions for civil partnerships that expired on 1 January 2014. That is why it is flawed legislation. As somebody who was in the same relationship in 2010, was I supposed to know between 2011 and 2014 that in 2018, legislation would come in to address pensions entitlement? Rather than entering a civil partnership on 14 April 2014, I needed to have entered one in December 2013, not knowing that the legislation was going to come into existence in 2018. That is why I say that the number of people involved, certainly within the public service, would be very small and would have minimal Exchequer implications.

Ms O'Donoghue might wish to come in on that point.