Seanad debates

Thursday, 6 December 2018

Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2018: Second Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, to the House and I thank him for his acknowledgement of my small part in one provision of the Bill, which I will come to in a moment. On behalf of the Labour Party Senators, I welcome the provisions of the Bill. As my colleague, Deputy Willie Penrose, has done in the Dáil, I welcome that the Bill gives legislative effect to various measures dealing with increases in weekly rates of pensions, benefits and allowances. I echo Senator Ardagh's point about the date on which those increases come into effect. We welcome the increase in the qualified child payment and we very much support the extension of the period of payment of domiciliary care allowance for an additional three months when the child who has been cared for passes away. As the Minister of State said, this is a sensitive change. We also welcome the increase in weekly earnings disregard for one-parent family payment. This will be of assistance to lone parents.

In my brief contribution, I will focus on the provision in section 27, to which the Minister of State also referred. As he noted, the provision gives a right of entitlement to spousal pension benefits in certain circumstances in respect of same-sex couples - LGBT couples - where the pension scheme member who is retiring could not have entered a legal marriage or civil partnership because the relevant legislation had not been enacted in time. I very much welcome this provision.Effectively it deals with the case taken by David Parris, my former colleague and a lecturer in French at Trinity College Dublin, who brought a case to the Labour Court and was then referred to the European Court of Justice. Although he lost there, in March 2017, I brought to the Seanad, on his behalf, the Pensions (Equal Treatment in Occupational Benefit Scheme) (Amendment) Bill 2016 to seek to deal with the inequality so clearly illustrated in his case. He had been in a long-term committed relationship but had been unable to marry before the relevant date which, in terms of the Trinity pension scheme, was the date of his 60th birthday. I know the Bill deals with that issue, where a scheme provides for an age by which a partner should have married or entered into a civil partnership and it also provides for a situation where the requirement is that the marriage or civil partnership should be entered into before retirement.

The David Paris situation related specifically to age. It seemed deeply anomalous to me and my Labour Party colleagues when we introduced the Bill that somebody in Dr. Parris's position would be discriminated against in this way. I am very glad to say that when we introduced the Bill on 22 March 2017 in the Seanad, it was welcomed by the then Minister for Social Protection, now Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar. He committed then to bringing in the provision, albeit by other means. It has been a somewhat slow process since then. I have been apprising myself of it and contacting the relevant Ministers, including the present Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, to make sure this provision was being retained. It appeared under head 14 of the general scheme published in May 2017 and originally was section 20 of this Bill and is now section 27. I very much welcome the fact it will now become law. It addresses an anomaly. I have called it a legacy issue, left over from the welcome legalisation of marriage equality and the subsequent Act of 2015. This was an anomalous situation affecting a relatively low number of individuals or couples who faced the same difficulty as David Parris faced under their pension schemes despite the passage of marriage equality legislation. Section 27 represents a significant step towards rectifying continuing discrimination and equality for same sex couples in all respects in their marital and committed relationships. I very much welcome that.

Fergus Courtney had raised broader issues with the present and previous Ministers around pension equality for same sex couples. I think some of those concerns are now addressed in section 27, which deals not only with pension schemes that specify the age by which a member should have married or entered into a civil partnership, but also schemes which require members to have married or entered into civil partnership before retirement. I think the issue is dealt with and it is a very important step for equality. It will be broadly welcomed.

In the Dáil, my colleague, Deputy Penrose, gave a very erudite and learned speech on the history of pensions and pension law and I endorse what he said. One point he made was of particular relevance, namely, pension entitlements for family carers, which I know would be close to the Minister of State's heart. As Deputy Penrose pointed out, there is a small number of long-term carers who have been caring in the family for in excess of 20 years but do not qualify for a State pension due to their caring responsibilities and the assets of their partner. I think the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, indicated that she would address this but I want to raise and flag it with the Minister of State because it was something Deputy Penrose specifically emphasised in his speech. I thank the Minister of State again for his kind words. I welcome the Bill and particularly section 27.

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