Rónán Mullen (Independent)

The reason I raise this is that I would have liked to have had the opportunity during the civil partnership legislation to put on record how much I would support the granting of certain rights and privileges normally associated with marriage, including in the area of taxation, to non-marital situations. For example, there are cases of people living in a mutually dependent situation, loving and caring for each other with one making sacrifices to their own detriment for the other. It might well be agreeable that a house should be inherited tax free in such cases. However, providing that for same-sex partnerships envisages the imposition of an inequality on other types of relationship situations such as, say, carers or siblings.

The problem is we never got to debate this properly, a regrettable matter. For that reason, it would be all the more inappropriate today if we were to insert this blanket recommendation without properly debating whether it should apply to civil partners only or if there are other categories of relationship to be considered. I do not see how we can put this recommendation without having the debate we never had during the summer.