The government must withdraw the provisions on cohabiting couples from the Civil Partnership Bill, the Irish Farmers’ Association has demanded.
IFA President John Bryan said it “would be a cause of serious concern to the farming community that legal claims for the transfer of a property, a lump .jpg)
sum, maintenance payments or a share in pension entitlements or a claim on an estate could rise following the ending of a relationship between a couple for as little as three years.”
He continued: “This means that people previously living together would find themselves open to maintenance and property claims quite similar to those arising following a marriage break-up with the potential also for costly legal disputes and court proceedings.”
Mr Bryan denounced the lack of a public debate about these provisions of the Bill.
He said: “I am calling on all sides in Leinster House to recognise this fact and for this aspect of the Bill to be withdrawn to allow an informed public debate take place.”
He pointed out that insofar as the public is aware of the Bill at all it is only in relation to what it will do for same-sex couples.
He added: “The fact the legal liabilities are being imposed on couples living together, who have chosen not to enter into a legal commitment through marriage, is a very substantial change to the law.”
The law will mean that all cohabiting couples will have a legal relationship automatically imposed on them after three years, or two if they have a child, unless they sign a legal agreement to the contrary.
Mr Bryan said: “Couples getting married expressly undertake legal obligations to each other and if couples living together wish to establish a legal relationship, then provision could be made to allow them to do so, but to foist legal liabilities upon them after three years without their express consent is inappropriate and uncalled for.”
He continued: “The provision of an opt-out clause, whereby people living together would have to engage solicitors, get legal advice and make a legal agreement about their financial affairs is entirely unsatisfactory and unrealistic.”