The Civil Partnership Act is now in existence for over a year. In his column in last Friday’s Irish Times John Waters drew attention to an aspect of this law that was little noticed at the time, namely the provisions that force many of the legal responsibilities of marriage on cohabiting couples unless they opt out through legal agreement.

Waters gets it wrong in believing that cohabiting couples receive almost all the rights of married couples – they receive some of them – but his broader point is correct, which is that “the usual reason ‘straight’ couples have for ‘living together’ is that they wish to avoid legal entanglements until they decide if they want to be married.”

In other words, they’re cohabiting precisely because they don’t want the legal responsibilities of marriage just now.

There is no doubt that many cohabiting couples haven’t the slightest clue about the new legal situation that exists in Ireland, one that semi-marries them to one another without them even knowing it.

The Iona Institute in fact supported some of the rights of married couples being given to cohabiting couples so long as they were together at least five years. We outlined our position and the reasons for it in this paper in 2007 (see Section V).

In fact, the Civil Partnership Bill was amended prior to enactment to extend the qualifying period to five years, or two if children are involved.

The main saving grace is that most cohabiting couples have either split up or married within five years which means only a relatively small number of people will be affected by this.

But there should have been a much bigger debate about this provision of the law and a public awareness campaign. No-one should wake up one day to find themselves in a semi-marriage.