Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 27, to delete lines 1 to 37, and substitute the following:

59G.—If a party or a witness to a civil partnership registration does not have sufficient knowledge of the language of the registration to understand the registration documents or the declarations, the parties shall have an interpreter present who shall—

(a) before the parties make the declarations, sign, in the presence of the registrar, a statement to the effect that the interpreter understands and is able to converse in the language in respect of which he or she is to act as interpreter and give the statement to the registrar, and

(b) immediately after those declarations are made, give the registrar a signed certificate written in the language of the registration, to the effect that the interpreter has faithfully acted as interpreter.

59H.—The parties to a registered civil partnership shall be taken to be civil partners of each other as soon as the registrar has countersigned the civil partnership form as required by section 59D(6)(a), regardless of whether the registrar has performed the actions required of him or her under section 59D(6)(c), and all duties and benefits that accrue to civil partners under the Act of 2010 or any other law accrue to them.".

Amendment No. 14 substitutes sections 59G and 59H. The substitution of section 59G is related to amendment No. 11, making it mandatory for declarations to be made orally. Amendment No. 15 provides that interpretation is required if either of the parties or their witnesses do not understand the language in which the declarations are made. It removes provision for the translation of documents which will no longer be required since interpretation will be an absolute requirement where any party does not understand the language of the declarations.

The redraft of section 59H is related to the changes made in amendment No. 13. It ensures the parties are taken to be registered civil partners and entitled to all its benefits and subject to all its obligations after they have made their oral declarations and the civil partnership registration form has been signed, witnessed and countersigned. The section specifies that a couple are civil partners regardless of whether the registrar has entered their details into the civil partnership register. The acquisition of rights and duties is not contingent on the formal entry into the civil partnership register to be maintained by the General Register Office. It is important to clarify this matter as the entry into the registrar may take place some time after the declarations are made and the form signed.

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