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)