It will extend to registered same-sex couples the rights and obligations of marriage in areas such as property, social welfare, succession, alimony, pensions and taxes. Adoption rights will not be included.
Terminating a civil partnership will work the same as divorce: The partners will have to have lived apart for four of the past five years before they can formally split.
The bill also changes how the law treats cohabiting couples who have not entered into a civil partnership or marriage. If they lived together for at least three years (two years, if they have children) and then split, the partners could be on the hook for financial relief if they were economically dependent — in areas such as alimony, property and sharing of pensions.
A recent Lansdowne Market Research poll found that 58 percent of the Irish believe gay couples should have access to civil marriage, and another 26 percent think they should be allowed civil partnerships but denied marriage.
Uppdaterad 2016-11-16
