So there we go – keep an eye to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reforms’s website tomorrow lunchtime maybe. A Friday dumper if ever I saw it. No press conference planned from Minister Ahern to explain it all.
Meanwhile the Green Party Leader and others are going to visit GLEN tomorrow to have a chat.
More here later…
Civil Partnership Bill to be published today | gaelick // Jun 26, 2009 at 09:02
[...] goes to Maman Poulet who flagged this yesterday. On this, the eve of the Dublin Pride march 2009 (well timed, Dermot), keep your eyes on justice.ie [...]
So just how watered down do you think the Irish proposals will be?
Gerard, I think this bill will be much weaker than the UK civil partnerhip bill.
I would bet that immigration, pensions, inheritance and hospital visitation are all covered. But issues to do with children and thier non biological parents will be missing (I mean people being able to adopt or have a legal relationship with children they parent already (ie. their partner is the biological parent.) and there will be no mention of adoption.
So well off gay men (and a few women) with money to pass on and no kids will be sorted.
Cue much lecturing about it being only a start and people need protection now etc. etc. etc. Mutters of attorney general and constitution will also be heard and how can’t be doing anything even remotely like marriage without a referendum.
This will be accompanied on side lines by loud wails from the people who want full civil marriage and to hear the M word being used.
If it’s any better than the above I really will eat my hat in public (Anyone care to explain to Gerard what that means
)
From the minister’s desk:
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Dermot Ahern T.D., today published the Civil Partnership Bill 2009.
The Bill provides for a statutory civil partnership registration scheme for same-sex couples together with a range of rights and duties consequent on registration including maintenance obligations, protection of a shared home, pension rights and succession. On registration of a civil partnership, the civil partners will be treated in the same way as spouses under the tax and social welfare codes. The necessary legislative provisions, to be provided for in Finance and Social Welfare Bills, will be brought into effect at the same time as the civil partnership registration scheme commences.
The Bill provides, for unmarried opposite-sex couples and unregistered same-sex couples, a redress scheme to give protection to a financially dependent person at the end of a long-term cohabiting relationship. The cohabitants scheme will put in place a legal safety-net for people living in long-term relationships who may otherwise be very vulnerable financially at the end of a relationship, whether through break-up or through bereavement.
Announcing the publication, Minister Ahern said: “Publication of the Bill implements a commitment in the Agreed Programme for Government to legislate for Civil Partnerships. The Bill provides very significant rights to civil partners which raises complex legal issues in the context of the special protection which the Constitution guarantees to marriage and in relation to the equality rights protected by Article 40.1 of the Constitution. The Bill has been carefully framed to balance any potential conflict between these two constitutionally guaranteed rights. This balance is achieved by maintaining material distinctions between civil partnership and marriage, in particular between the rights attaching to both, while at the same time reflecting the equality rights protected by the Constitution.�?
The Bill will give legal recognition to cohabitant agreements enabling cohabitants to regulate their joint financial and property affairs. It will provide legal certainty as to the status of cohabitant agreements made by couples who wish to regulate their financial and property affairs but who do not wish to marry or enter a civil partnership and who do not wish the redress scheme to apply to them.
The Bill draws on both the Report of the Law Reform Commission on The Rights and Duties of Cohabitants and the Colley Options Paper on Domestic Partnership.
Concluding, the Minister said: “This Bill will put in place a legal regime that reflects the many forms of relationships in modern Irish society. It provides legal protection for cohabiting couples and is an important step, particularly for same-sex couples, whose relationships have not previously been given legal recognition by the State.”
The Press Release will be available to view on the Oireachtas website: http://www.oireachtas.ie
Synopsis of Civil Partnership Bill 2009
The Bill will:
* establish a scheme of registration of civil partnerships for same-sex couples together with a range of rights and duties consequent on registration including in relation to maintenance, shared home, succession and pensions. A civil partnership ends only on the death of a partner or on dissolution by the court
* create a cohabitant’s redress scheme for same-sex and opposite-sex couples giving protection to an economically dependent party at the end of a long-term cohabiting relationship where the couple has not chosen to marry or to register in a civil partnership,
* give legal recognition to cohabitant agreements enabling cohabitants to regulate their joint financial affairs.
Full text of the Civil Partnership Bill available here:
http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=12249
Wow – I am very surprised by the anger in the crowd at the Pride Party in the Park on Saturday. There was almost universal disdain for it. Panti even had to make an opening statement that the LGBT people who supported Civil Partnerships were actually on the same side as those who support equality and that we should not start infighting.
My view is that this CP legislation is inadequate and that effectively it will kill off the campaign for equality for at least 25 years (despite all the claims by GLEN and the like that it is merely a stepping stone)
Of course people need protection now but that’s been the case for the past 80 years. I just wish those who claimed to be speaking on behalf of the community had realised this and not given an air of respectability to this Bill.
I also think it is in GLEN’s own interest (if they want to survive as a group) to tell us what their plans are to introduce equality. If they can’t or won’t do this then I don’t think they can survive as a group when they seem to have so little obvious support from the community (at least if Pride is anything to go by)
But Simon, there is so little accountability by our LGBT organisations in the main. ME doesnt even give information on who sits on their board on their own website. As for GLEN, they will continue, because they are acceptable to this govt as negotiators on the issue. The only way that GLEN will change or evaporate is if their funders, Atlantic Philanthropies who have financed them to the tune of 2.3million to date start to demand that GLEN demonstrate their right to represent the LGBT community, as a condition of funding, and institute, those old-fashioned actions- like public meetings to assess feedback, make available minutes of their meetings and become a membership based organisation which would require public AGMs ands elections. Its been a long time since I’ve seen something like that in action- but if memory serves, its called democracy. Personally, I blame AP for continuing not only to prop up but to encourage the non-accountability and arrogance of GLEN.. and others.
Stephen Spillane – Cork Info Night on the Civil Partnership Bill // Oct 13, 2009 at 22:46
[...] Civil Partnership Bill to be Published tomorrow (mamanpoulet.com) [...]