Labour bill on same-sex unions

ESTABLISHING legal recognition of same-sex unions “must be a priority” for the Oireachtas in 2007, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has said.

Labour will introduce a bill to the Dáil early in the New Year that would afford same-sex couples who enter into a civil union similar rights to married couples.

“The bill would create a status relationship equivalent to marriage for the benefit of people who are of the same sex and who, under the current constitutional understanding of marriage, cannot marry each other,” Mr Rabbitte said.