Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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92. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to reform family law prior to any future referendum on marriage equality to give same-sex civil partners the same legal entitlements and rights as married couples. [26756/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Following the enactment of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, which put civil partnership on a statutory footing, civil partners have enjoyed the same entitlements as married couples in a range of areas such as taxation and pensions. However, the legal advice received during the enactment of this legislation pointed to the constitutional difficulties of making civil partnership identical to marriage. As a consequence, it is not possible for civil partners to have the same legal entitlements and rights as married couples in all areas in the absence of an appropriate decision of the people in a referendum on marriage equality.

However, the Government has sought, where possible constitutionally, to extend the rights of civil partners. As the Deputy may be aware, the Government published the draft General Scheme of the Children and Family Relationships Bill on 30 January 2014. The General Scheme proposes a comprehensive reform of family law in fulfilment of the Government's commitment in the Programme for Government to modernise and reform family law so to address the needs of children and parents living in families which are not adequately covered by current legislation.

The reforms proposed in the General Scheme include the possibility of extending a range of parenting responsibilities to civil partners and to cohabitants in relation to the biological or adoptive children of their partners or cohabitants. The Scheme also provides for civil partners and cohabitants to obtain guardianship rights of the children of their partners or cohabitants where they are undertaking day-to-day care for the children. In addition, the General Scheme proposes that civil partners and cohabitants would have maintenance liabilities towards the children of their civil partners where the children are being raised by them. My aim is to proceed to drafting of the Bill as soon as possible, subject to Government approval, with a view to enactment in 2015, prior to a referendum on marriage equality.