Mr. Frank Moran:

In fairness to the Department, in the ministerial response, it referred to a Private Members’ Bill that was introduced by a number of Labour Party TDs following the adoption of the referendum. The 36-month period was contained in that Bill. If the Senator meets Deputy Ivana Bacik in the corridors of power here in the Houses, perhaps he could ask her whether she remembers where that 36-month period came from. It came from that political group and the Private Members’ Bill was basically copied and pasted into this legislation as it was progressing.

I would like to try to be helpful in this regard. Obviously, I have given more than a certain amount of thought as to how the 36-month period can be overcome. The committee might consider looking at the deletion of four words from the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Act 2018, namely, “within 36 months of”, because they are the words that create the problem. The word “following” could be inserted in their place in order that the first piece would read, “Following the coming into operation of the 2010 Act, the member entered into a civil partnership registration with a person referred to ...”. It is not a huge technical change. All of the intent of the original legislation could still be honoured. It is simply a deletion of four words and an insertion of one in order to overcome this issue. It would also, in my view, be more honourable to the intent of the legislation because if I were to recommend the window be changed to 48 months, 56 months, or whatever length of time, it is possible I would be proposing setting a bar that one or two individuals out there could not get over. By deleting those four words and inserting the word “following”, which would make it a requirement that the person either marries post 2015 or entered into a civil partnership in the period 2011 to 2015, everyone would be covered. With respect, I will leave that amendment with the Cathaoirleach and the committee to decide whether it would help the situation.