Wrong call: Pension equality denied

EQUALITY is like pregnancy. Just as there is no such thing as à la carte equality there is no such thing as being just a little bit pregnant, you either are or you are not; we either promote equality or we do not. There are no shades or degrees of status or compliance, it is a simple black-or-white equation.

It is therefore disheartening that so very soon after the constitutional amendment to allow same-sex marriage was endorsed at the ballot box that official Ireland is erecting barriers and making rulings that defy the spirit of that vote.

Public Service Reform Minister Brendan Howlin has ruled that long-serving current and retired civil servants who have entered civil partnerships or who may marry a same-sex partner be denied the possibility of upgrading their pension because they made a decision in 1984.

It would be almost another decade before homosexuality was decriminalised so the prospect of a same-sex marriage was as remote a prospect as playing the Munster hurling final on Mars.

Wrong call minister, you should think again.