Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is my first time since my appointment to address the House in this form - I spoke earlier on the storm debate - so I thank Deputies for their good wishes. I congratulate the Ceann Comhairle on her election and Deputy Buckley on his re-election.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am sorry to hear about the case he described. As he will know, in some of its laws, the State distinguishes between the treatment of people in a marriage or civil partnership and those not in a marriage or civil partnership. In some cases, these are important distinctions because they have a direct bearing on a person's rights and entitlements, including in the areas of taxation, social welfare, succession, immigration and others.

As Deputy Buckley referenced, on 22 January 2024 the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the O'Meara case on the entitlement of a surviving cohabitant to a widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's contributory pension. The Supreme Court judgment overruled the previous High Court decision and found in favour of Mr. O'Meara and his children. In simple terms and as the Deputy described, the Supreme Court found that section 124 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended, was inconsistent with the Constitution insofar as it excluded the claimant from the category of persons entitled to benefit from it. The court reached that conclusion on the basis of the equality guarantee contained in Article 40.1 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court noted that, in order to resolve the issue, a legislative amendment was required.

In June 2024, the then Government approved the priority drafting of the legislative changes required to respond to the Supreme Court decision. The general scheme of a Bill was referred to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel for priority drafting and to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands for pre-legislative scrutiny. The committee issued its report and recommendations on 26 July 2024. All of this is very technical but the Deputy should be assured that I fully agree with him and Deputy Kelly, who has consistently raised this issue with me over the past two weeks, that this legislation needs to be enacted. The draft legislation raised a number of complex issues that required further advice from the Office of the Attorney General and ongoing engagement between officials in my Department and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. A draft Bill has now been finalised and I intend to bring it to the Government in the near future to obtain approval for its introduction to the Oireachtas. It is a priority for me. I will keep the Deputy informed as to how it progresses.

I again express my sympathy to the family of the Deputy's friend on his recent passing.

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