Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I notice she saved the best for last.

I thank everybody in east Cork, in my constituency, for putting their faith in me and putting me back here for a third term. I thank my family and my supporters on the ground who canvassed for me. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Calleary. I hope we will have plenty of good banter and battles here, but most importantly, that we will have results.

The Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2024 is important legislation which is intended to give effect to the O'Meara judgment by expanding entitlements to social welfare schemes aimed at bereaved partners and families to qualified cohabitants and their children. I bring this up today because three or four week ago, a family had a funeral in my own town. It resonated with me. I was interested in this Bill and was watching it because I had been lobbied by many constituents. The family had five beautiful children. Mam and dad were supposed to get married on Wednesday three weeks ago. Unfortunately, the dad passed away on the Tuesday three weeks ago. Now, the mam is a grieving widow with five young children.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael need to follow up on their pre-election commitments to bring this Bill into law. I know it is committed to in the programme for Government. My biggest worry is about how long this could go on. I researched it and I think it will only be backdated to January 2024. If the Bill continues to not be enacted, it could cause problems further down the line. Thousands of families are affected by this. This is an excellent Bill. It is a Bill about doing the right thing. We often speak about doing the right thing in here. This has massive potential to ease the pressure on families. Those who have already endured the heartbreak of losing a loved one should never have to bear the additional trauma of being ostracised, cast aside or judged just because they did not sign a certain contract, having spent a lifetime with their partner and having built a family and a life even though, technically, they did not have a marriage certificate but had their own marriage in life and had harmony. I think it is bad. Enacting this Bill would provide significant peace of mind and security for the families who I am speaking about. It would give the best security to people when they are at their lowest ebb. That is not the only incident but it is the most recent incident and I know the family.

I would love to go back to those people and others, as I am sure the Minister on the other side would, to say that we did the right thing and enacted this Bill. Is there a timeframe to do this Bill? Will it be enacted with urgency? What is the procedure? Is there anything that we can do on this side of the House to push it and facilitate that?

It is not a pat on the back for any of us. It is just about doing the right thing. I hope the people outside of the Houses who need this Bill to be enacted will benefit from it. I thank the Minister for his patience.

See this speech in context