Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A substantial number of people are affected by this. There are 150,000 cohabiting couples in the State, 75,000 of whom have children. There are a number of questions. Treoir is one organisation which is raising these issues and the questions are as yet unsettled and require clarification. I hope it will be possible to get clarification on that. I will be able to come in again in a minute, so I will break my questions into two parts.

My primary question is whether cohabiting couples without dependent children will be covered in the same way that married couples without children are. Will cohabiting couples who lost their partner in 2020 receive back payments if they had a claim turned down, as happened to the gentleman who took the original case, Mr. John O'Meara? How many years of cohabitation will be required for cohabiting couples to qualify in the future?

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