Signs of Change in Policy

The need for change is slowly being recognised at a policy level. In 1996, the Government-appointed expert Constitution Review Group (CRG) observed that:

‘The family in Ireland has been profoundly affected by social trends since 1937... The traditional Roman Catholic ethos has been weakened by various influences including secularisation, urbanisation, changing attitudes to sexual behaviour, the use of contraceptives, social acceptance of premarital relations, co-habitation and single parenthood, a lower norm for family size, increased readiness to accept separation and divorce, greater economic independence of women. … These social changes call for amendments in the Constitution, some of which raise difficult issues that require the achievement of delicate balances for their resolution.'

The CRG recommended that the Constitutional Articles giving the marital family special protection should be deleted, and that family rights should be protected on a more inclusive basis. They recommended adopting the approach of the European Court of Human Rights, which grants every person respect for their ‘family life', including non-marital family life, but requires the existence of ‘family ties' between the mother and the father in cases where fathers seek child custody.

In 1998, a Government-appointed Commission on the family remarked further that ‘Cohabitation is an important subject for social research' (Strengthening Families for Life, Final Report of the Commission on the Family, 1998).

In 2002 a new series of family forums was announced by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan TD, to take place around Ireland and to investigate how the State can best support families.

A Government-sponsored report by Mary Daly (Families and Family Life in Ireland , February, 2004), found that most people do not want the traditional nuclear family as a model for policy-makers – that the nuclear family itself is effectively a myth.

The State's Law Reform Commission published a Consultation Paper on the Rights and Duties of Co-habitees in 2004, pointing out all the advantages in law derived from marital status. The Commission pointed out that Article 41 does not prevent legislation being passed to protect co-habitees. The Commission also took the view that ‘marriage like' relationships may be between persons of the same sex or of opposite sex.

In 2005, Senator David Norris introduced a private member's bill in the Seanad, the Civil Partnership Bill, seeking to provide a means for co-habiting gay and heterosexual couples to register their relationships legally. That Bill is still before the Seanad.

The All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution is currently carrying out a review of the articles of the Constitution dealing with the family, and has held public hearings with a range of groups representing many diverse forms of family. It is due to report in late 2005.

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The KAL Case