Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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We now move to Deputy Pat Buckley.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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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.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I apologise to the Ceann Comhairle, as I never congratulated her on her official status.

I welcome the Minister's response and the fact that the Bill is being finalised. I read the report of the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands. In fairness to its recommendations, I was a bit worried when the Minister said there might be some complications. However, if a draft Bill is now being finalised, I would be very interested in working with him. We will give any support we can. This is about doing the right thing for people. Bills sometimes fall, get lost or are shelved but I am passionate about this one because, whenever you can help someone who is at a disadvantage and you can get that right, it is a great day for everybody and a win for everybody. I thank the Minister for his response and I look forward to working with him and keeping an eye on the Bill.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Buckley. Excuse me; I thank Deputy Buckley and the Minister. It is getting late.