Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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17. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the terms of the widow's or widower's pension, particularly in respect of non-married or co-habiting couples, and the judgment of the Supreme Court on 22 January 2024; the expected timeline in terms of the legislative changes that are required in respect of this decision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37682/24]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister will be familiar with the issue of the widow's and widower's pension. There was a Supreme Court decision in January this year. On 18 June, the Minister said it was her intention to enact legislation before the Dáil recess and that a small amendment was required. That has not happened. I am looking for an update on the extension of the pension payment to non-married and cohabiting couples on account of the Supreme Court decision.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. Under the law, as currently enacted, entitlement to a widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner’s contributory pension is only available to a surviving partner who was party to a marriage or civil partnership. On 22 January, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the entitlement of an unmarried cohabitant to a widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner’s contributory pension. The Supreme Court judgment overruled a previous High Court decision and found in favour of the claimant and his children.

In simple terms, the court found that section 124 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 is inconsistent with the Constitution insofar as it excluded the claimant from the category of persons entitled to benefit from it. The court reached that conclusion on the basis of the equality guarantee contained in Article 40.1 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court judgment notes that in order to resolve the issue raised by the judgment, a legislative amendment is required.

On 18 June, I obtained Government approval for the priority drafting of the legislative changes required to respond to the Supreme Court decision. The general scheme of a Bill was referred to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for priority drafting, and to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands for pre-legislative scrutiny. The committee issued its report on 26 July. My officials are now working closely with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to develop and finalise this legislation and I intend to introduce it to the Oireachtas as soon as possible once that is done. I trust that clarifies the issue.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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A substantial number of people are affected by this. There are 150,000 cohabiting couples in the State, 75,000 of whom have children. There are a number of questions. Treoir is one organisation which is raising these issues and the questions are as yet unsettled and require clarification. I hope it will be possible to get clarification on that. I will be able to come in again in a minute, so I will break my questions into two parts.

My primary question is whether cohabiting couples without dependent children will be covered in the same way that married couples without children are. Will cohabiting couples who lost their partner in 2020 receive back payments if they had a claim turned down, as happened to the gentleman who took the original case, Mr. John O'Meara? How many years of cohabitation will be required for cohabiting couples to qualify in the future?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. He has asked me a lot of questions and I will have to come back with some of the answers because this is quite technical. My officials are doing a lot of work to cover some of the particular issues the Deputy has raised. This is complex enough, and want to make sure we get it right.

The Deputy said there are about 150,000 cohabiting couples. I asked my officials how many people they think will be entitled to the payment and they advised me that it is very difficult to predict the number of people who may have an entitlement under the scheme as there is limited data on these couples. The Deputy has provided one figure, but the analysis carried out by my Department estimated that 500 new cohabitant recipients are expected annually during the initial years.

There is a bit of work to be done on this. As I said, my officials are working on this. I have met Mr. O'Meara, who found himself in an awful situation. I am glad we have been able to work on this and can bring forward legislation in due course that will reflect a modern society.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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We do not have legislation yet; we have a general scheme. If we can get a better sense of when the legislation will come forward, that would be welcome. I appreciate that there are some technical details to be worked out, but the primary issue is which families will be eligible and how long people need to be cohabiting before they are entitled to the payment. If the Minister can answer those questions, that would be excellent.

I know Treoir has been in touch with the Minister several times and has not received any clarification from her on these issues. I refer in particular to the issue of backdating, how many years will be required and which families will be eligible. I would appreciate if the Minister and her office would engage with Treoir to ensure that these questions are answered. She said she and her Department are examining the pre-legislative scrutiny report, which is a necessary part of the process. Will we have legislation before Christmas or the election, whatever is sooner?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I will bring forward the proposed legislation as soon as I possibly can. Under the draft legislation, it is proposed that a person who becomes eligible for the scheme will be able to claim irrespective of the date of the death of their partner. It is also proposed that claims will be backdated to the date of the judgment of January 2024 when the existing law was found to be inconsistent with the Constitution, where the date of death preceded that date.

The Deputy asked a few other questions. I just do not have the information on the exact details, but I will ask my officials to engage with Treoir to cover off some of those things to make sure we get it right. It is quite complex, given all the different scenarios.