Civil Partnership Bill

pikachucheeks

From the RTE website;

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has published the Civil Partnership Bill, which gives people in long-term and same-sex relationships many of the rights of married couples.

The Bill will allow same sex couples to register their civil partnership for the first time and it also contains succession rights, protection of a home that couples share, plus maintenance rights in the event of a separation.

On registration, civil partners will be treated in the same way as spouses under the tax and social welfare codes.

The Bill also gives financial protection to a dependent person of an unmarried opposite sex couple or an unregistered same sex couple at the end of a long-term cohabiting relationship.

Mr Ahern said that while the Bill did not legislate for marriage, it struck a fine balance for all concerned.

He added the Bill could not stray into the area of marriage because of the Constitution.

Reacting to Green Party suggestions that the new Bill does not go far enough, the Minister said it had been approved by a cabinet of which the Greens are members.

From Justice.ie ;

Announcing the publication, Minister Ahern said: "This is a major milestone in the implementation of the commitment in the Agreed Programme for Government to legislate for Civil Partnerships. This legislation is keenly awaited by many cohabiting couples, and will be of great benefit both to same-sex and opposite-sex cohabiting couples. As well as providing for Civil Partnership Registration for same-sex couples, it will also provide certainty as to the status of cohabitation agreements, and a legal safety-net to people living in long term relationships who may otherwise be very vulnerable at the end of a relationship, whether through break-up or through bereavement."

The Scheme will also clarify the law by providing for recognition of cohabitant agreements between unmarried opposite-sex cohabiting couples and between unregistered cohabiting same-sex couples. In addition, for unregistered or unmarried cohabitants who have not made a cohabitant agreement, it will provide protection to a dependent vulnerable party at the end of a relationship by establishing a redress scheme.

Concluding, the Minister said: "This Bill also represents a recognition by Government of the many forms of relationships in modern society, and an important step very particularly for same-sex couples, whose relationships have not previously been given legal recognition."

The Scheme of the Civil Partnership Bill may be viewed on the Department's website

What do you guys think about allowing homosexual couples and unmarried couples the same rights as married couples? Do you agree with the bill, or would you argue against it?

DarkJager

I don't really care to be honest. If 2 people want to live together, why don't they just get on with it? Why does everybody think marriage makes love official, or that they must be recognised in the eyes of a corrupt government & church as being a couple?

mobius42

They should have set up a new system of civil marriage, where gay people and straight people are given the same rights in the eyes of the law. Let the Churches do whatever they want with their own marriage ceremonies.

Daftendirekt

They should just be given the right to marry; it should be called a marriage and they should have all the same rights as a straight couple.

It looks like they'd need to call a referendum to do this though, so realistically this is a step in the right direction.

Mr.Obvious

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4yjFXWcsUp0/SLrRO1p4ifI/AAAAAAAAACQ/XVtq7RuSX4Y/s200/down+with+this+sort+of+thing.jpg

Long Onion

DarkJager wrote: »

I don't really care to be honest. If 2 people want to live together, why don't they just get on with it? Why does everybody think marriage makes love official, or that they must be recognised in the eyes of a corrupt government & church as being a couple?

Tax on death - Yourself and Mr LightJager move in and buy a house together, you croak and leave the home to him - he has to pay gift tax on your half of the house - usually means he'll have to sell the whole thing to discharge the tax bill - not good. I don't think the church thing is the issue

batbaby

*sigh* I hate when people make over a fuss over this. Is it not discriminating against basic human rights by not letting same sex couples have cival parterships?! Just cast the church aside and ignore their hypocritical and out of date opinions!!

Anna Molly

I say go for it.
If two people love each other and want that kinda thing, then go for it.
They're a couple, I don't see why they shouldn't be recognised as so and not have the same rights as straight couples.

Dord

Hmm... not quite there yet...