Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

An opposite-sex couple may want to stay outside the legal marital relationship but may nevertheless want to create some mutually enforceable rights and obligations in their dealings with each other and with society in general. On the other hand, as the law stands, gay and lesbian couples are excluded from marriage and cannot make a full legal and social commitment to each other. Just like opposite-sex couples, many gay and lesbian couples may want to create mutually enforceable rights and obligations towards each other and to be recognised within society.

There is also the case of cohabitants where there is no sexual dimension to the relationship. Such relationships are often accompanied by social and economic interdependences for the people involved. Fairness demands that the rights of people in these relationships need to be considered. For example, in the case of two elderly people who have been sharing a house for life, as matters stand, neither of them can confer on the other next-of-kin rights in the case of death or even in regard to hospital visitation.

There are many complex issues involved in creating legal recognition and protection for cohabiting couples. Rather than pretend the Bill is the way forward, which it certainly is not as it says nothing to cohabiting heterosexual couples——

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