Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)

It is harrowing that the weight and those six days, as the petitioner says, seem to have been contributing factors. Is it agreed to do as proposed? Agreed.

P00058/24, entitled Flawed Legislation relating to Pensions and Social Security, from Mr. Frank Moran, is to ensure the entitlement of the same-sex couples to benefit from an occupational pension scheme. Changes were made to Part VIIA of the Pensions Act 1990, as inserted by Part 3, section 27 of the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registrations Act 2018, in section 81L(1)(ii). The changes in this law were adopted for members of the Civil Service contained in DPER Circular 18/2020. The title of the circular was Recognition of Same Sex Marriages/Civil Partnerships under Public Service "Original" Spouses' and Children's Contributory Pension Scheme. Appendix 2 of Circular 18/2020 provides an information note on Part VIIA of the Pensions Act 1990, as inserted by Part 3, section 27 of the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Act 2018.

Section 81(L): conditions for entitlement subsection (1)(ii):

that the member married or entered into a civil partnership with that person, within 36 months of the coming into operation of the Marriage Act 2015 (“the Act of 2015) or the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligation of Cohabitants Act 2010 (“the Act of 2010”).

The petitioners states:

On 24 September 2023, I applied to be reinstated in the "original" spouses' and children's contributory pensions scheme as provided for in Circular 18/2020. On 4 June, I received a formal response to inform me that my application had been refused because my civil partnership had not taken place before 1 January 2014 as required by section 81L(1)(c)(ii) of the Act. The relevant section is fatally flawed, discriminatory, unreasonable, unconstitutional and is offensive to its original equality intent.

On 24 September 2023 I applied to rejoin the ‘Original’ Spouses and Children's Contributory Pensions Scheme. The application was made to my former employer the Central Bank of Ireland.

The petitioner requested the following action. To remove the relevant section as it is fatefully flawed, discriminatory, unreasonable, unconstitutional and is offensive to its original equality intent.

There has been correspondence from the secretariat on 2 July 2024, 15 July 2024, 3 October 2024, the petitioner appearance before the committee and 4 October 2024.

The recommendation is that the correspondence from the petitioner be forwarded to the Department of Social Protection for comment within 14 days. Do members have any views?