Ireland to Introduce Civil Unions in 2008

Ireland's government announced late last week that it will introduce legislation legalizing civil unions for same-sex and heterosexual couples by March 2008.

Known as the Civil Unions Bill 2006, the legislation will provide gay couples with unions legally equivalent to marriage, akin to the Civil Partnership Act in the United Kingdom.

Ireland's Labour Party introduced the bill in February 2006, but the government postponed it due to questions about whether it contradicted the Irish constitution.

The bill will also include requirements for pensions, inheritance, next-of-kin status, and adoption. As of now, only married couples can adopt children in Ireland.

Justice, Equity, and Law Reform minister Brian Lenihan addressed the Dail (the lower house of Ireland's parliament) and said that although same-sex couples will be granted rights to civil unions, same-sex marriage is not an option.

Lenihan reminded legislators of the terms of the constitution: "'The state pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of marriage, on which the family is founded, and to protect it against attack,'" he said.

"The advice available to me from the attorney general on this matter is crystal clear and indicates that a legislative approach which seeks to define any other type of relationship expressly in terms of marriage, as the Civil Unions Bill 2006 attempts to do, is constitutionally unsound."

Lenihan pledged to publish details of the legislation by March 30 and said it would become law under the current government.

"The government has asked me to prepare a bill which will provide for the registration of civil partnerships of same-sex couples. It will also provide protection for other relationships which lie outside marriage but which may be heterosexual or same-sex."

Green Party justice spokesman Ciaran Cuffe issued a statement praising the announcement of the legislation, saying that it "is a major step forward in Irish equality legislation."

Irish Parliament delegate Brendan Howlin, spokesperson on constitutional matters and law reform, said in a statement that "gay and lesbian citizens are entitled to expect the Dail to legislate to ensure that they have the same basic rights as other citizens."

"I am also confident that Irish society has matured and attitudes changed sufficiently to stage where a majority of our people would have no problem with legislation that would provide same-sex couples with the same rights and duties that are generally available to married couples."

Last year, the High Court of Ireland annulled the same-sex marriage of a lesbian couple married in Canada in 2003, ruling that the Irish constitution does not permit recognition of such a union.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in the Republic of Ireland in 1993. Discrimination and incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation are illegal. (Hassan Mirza, Gay.com)