Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill on behalf of the Sinn Féin team. This legislation started from a really good place, namely, the intention to address the historic injustice whereby children of cohabiting parents were treated less favourably than those of married parents, a provision found to be unconstitutional in the O'Meara case, as we all know. While this is welcome and we support the associated part of the Bill, it is not so welcome – frankly, it is shameful – that, in fixing one wrong, the Government has created another. This is because the Bill now excludes divorced and separated partners and, more importantly, excludes their children from support through the bereaved partner's pension. It creates a new category of children and families who will now be treated as less deserving.

My Sinn Féin colleague in the Dáil Louise O'Reilly tabled amendments to try to address this very point and to continue recognising the hardship experienced by divorced or separated partners who, even after separation, often carry the emotional and financial responsibilities of coparenting. These are not abstract circumstances. Those involved are just grieving ex-partners who end up paying for the funeral costs and trying to shield their children from trauma, all without the support they were once entitled to.We know, and the Free Legal Advice Centre, FLAC, has also rightly pointed this out, this is not a case of opening floodgates for a huge amount of people at a huge cost. The numbers are very small but the impact is enormous.

It is very disappointing that most of Sinn Féin's amendments were ruled out of order in the Dáil because this legislation deserved a more thorough and compassionate approach. When we have a chance to legislate, we should always aim to do the decent thing to make the law better, fairer and more reflective of real life and the diversity of families today.

The Chief Justice, in the O'Meara judgment, emphasised the rights of children and the obligations of their parents are not contingent on the legal status of the relationship and yet this Bill now draws a new dividing line, one that says some children, because their parents are divorced or separated, are less deserving. That is policy made without regard for the realities faced by many grieving families.

This extended financial support to one group but, in doing so, it removed it from another. It seems bizarre. I would not be surprised if this will lead yet another family to take a constitutional challenge, as John O'Meara did. We should not be legislating for inequality. We should be learning from the O'Meara case, not trying to lay groundwork for the next one.

Finally, I commend John O'Meara and his family for their bravery and resilience and also FLAC, Treoir and the One Family for their tireless advocacy. We in Sinn Féin will continue to stand with them and with all the families to ensure that no child is left behind based on the marital status of their parents.