Citizenship: Ireland still lagging behind

The legislation to legalise same sex unions in Ireland (the so called Civil Unions Bill) was defeated in the country's parliament at the end of February. The defeated bill would have granted all of the same rights for same-sex couples as married couples currently enjoy.The Irish government claimed that the bill proposed by the Labour party would not comply with the constitution, but promised to introduce their own proposal for legislation later this year. Justice Minister Michael McDowell told Irish MPs that the state is constitutionally required to 'uphold the institution of marriage', whereas Article 41 of the Irish constitution only says that the institution of marriage is to be protected, but does not define what marriage is. He also pretended that a referendum to change the constitution would, "be highly unlikely to succeed and could, if attempted, be very counterproductive in terms of achieving social consensus on this issue". Mr McDowell, a member of the ruling Fianna Fail party, promised that the government would be proposing specific legislation to protect the rights of all unmarried couples, gay or straight. Labour leader Pat Rabbitte however, called Mr McDowell's speech: "a shameful, shallow, rowdy, incoherent, arrogant and bombastic farce".

In any case, surveys have shown the majority of Irish people are in favour same sex-marriages (around 84%), which puts the government under renewed pressure to recognise gay partnerships. Strongly catholic Ireland has come a long way since the dark days of prejudice, homosexuality was only decriminalised in Ireland in 1993, but since then the country has embraced gay rights. There is more tolerance nowadays and general agreement that homosexual people are entitled to be equally valued as members of society in every respect. Both discrimination and incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation are illegal.

On the same island, Northern Ireland, still part of the UK, has enjoyed same-sex civil partnerships since December 2005. Ireland is one of the few 'old' European Union member states (together with Italy and Greece) that do not dispose of any legal framework applying to same sex partnerships.