Marriage laws 'breach human rights'

Ireland's laws could be in breach of international human rights because they do not recognise same-sex unions, it was claimed today.

The State may even face an international law suit for discriminating against same sex couples, a Human Rights Commission study found.

The report states Ireland gives more rights to married couples than to unmarried heterosexual or gay couples, particularly in cases of a relationship breakdown.

Speaking at its launch, Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell said that a Civil Partnership Bill is going to be brought in, but admitted that fully fledged gay marriages will not on the Government’s agenda.

He also revealed senior church figures are not expected to object to government plans to grant civil recognition to gay couples.

“Most gay people don’t actually want to be tied to full blown marriage Irish style, what they do want is some recognition of their relationship which gives them basic fairness,” said Mr McDowell.

“I have spoken to senior church men and I have every reason to believe that there is a consensus that there has to be a change for fairness.

“Whatever the churches views are about sexual behaviour from a moral point of view, I think nearly everyone believes there is no need to be unfair to any citizens in Irish society.”

The report, entitled The Rights of De Facto Couples, also found Ireland could even be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement by not legally recognising gay couples.

“Under the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, there’s a requirement to achieve an equivalence in human rights standards between the North and the south,” said author Fergus Ryan.

“Given that you now have civil partnership in the North and not in the south we are clearly out of kilter in that regard.”

In 2002, the census showed that more than 77,000 couples were cohabiting outside of marriage, which represents more than 8% of all family units in Ireland.