Dáil Approves Civil Partnerships

Gay couples will soon have their relationships legally recognised by the Irish State for the first time.

Support for the new Civil Partnership law was so overwhelming, that it passed through the Dáil this week without the need for a vote.

It enjoyed cross party support, despite opposition from the country's Catholic Bishops. When it was passed, there was applause from the public gallery.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said all parties had united behind the bill to "make a clear and powerful statement that gay people will never again have their status or relationships ignored".

"In advancing this bill, we take from no one. We undermine no one. We destroy nothing. We only give - civil rights, protection and recognition of this State."

He quoted James Connolly who said "Ireland without her people means nothing to me. Ireland is her people", and said that by enacting this law, the government was extending civil rights to countless thousands of Irish men and women.

The Bill will become law within months once it is approved by the Seanad and signed by the President.

Under the new law, couples can who register their "partnership" with a civil registrar will have many of the same entitlements, under law as married couples, in areas like property, pensions, inheritance, tax and social welfare.

Couples will have to give three months notice to a registrar of a planned civil partnership, as is the case for civil weddings.

Dissolving a civil partnership will also mirror divorce, and can only be done once the partners have lived apart for four out of the previous five years.

But the Bill stops short of full marriage equality. And it fails completely to deal with the issue of gay couples who have children, and who wish to establish a joint legal connection with their child.

Gay rights groups in Ireland have welcomed the Bill as an "historic advance not just for lesbian and gay couples, but for everyone in Ireland", but warned the issue of children parented by same-sex couples was "a critical omission that will have to be addressed".

Two other pieces of legislation must be passed - dealing with social welfare and tax issues - before the first partnerships will be made available. They've been promised for later this year.