New legislation that will give same-sex cohabiting couples the same tax treatment as married couples has been 
published by the Government.
The legislation, arising from the last Government’s Civil Partnership Act, will allow registered civil partners the same treatment in matters of income tax, stamp duty, capital acquisitions tax, capital gains tax and VAT, the Irish Times reports.
The move means that the special tax status of marriage will now be shared by registered homosexual couples in civil partnerships. Last year, when the Act was passed, the Iona Institute said that it created new injustices because it attacked the special status of marriage and furthermore discriminated in favour of sexual relationships over non-sexual ones without any justification.
The measures contained in the Finance (No 3) Bill 2011, published by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan yesterday, were among the commitments in the Programme for Government.
Mr Noonan acknowledged that he was giving effect to a commitment made by the last government that was not possible to carry through because of the early general election.
“The previous government committed to introducing the changes to tax legislation. This was not possible during their term of office due to the early general election but I am now publishing the Finance (No 3) Bill 2011,” he said.
He said the Bill was published separately from the Finance (No 2) Bill 2011, currently before the Dáil, as “it implements changes that go right through the tax system and will require detailed consideration”.
The new bill was welcomed by gay rights groups.
“It provides important certainty and security for the many same-sex couples who have registered or are planning to register their civil partnerships” said Kieran Rose, chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN).
“The Bill also provides that a child whose parent is in a civil partnership will be treated the same, for tax purposes, as a child of a married couple. This means, for example, that children of civil partners will be treated the same for inheritance tax as children of a married couple.”
However, commenting on the legislation last year, Dr John Murray of The Iona Institute said that marriage had special status for a reason.
Dr Murray said that marriage is “the most pro-child of all social institutions. Research shows that children tend to fare best when raised by their two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage”.
He added: “This makes marriage unique and it is not discrimination to treat something that is unique in a unique way by giving it status and recognition that belong to it and it alone.
“However, the Civil Partnership Bill will give almost all the rights of married couples to gay and lesbian couples. People will see very little difference between civil partnerships and marriage and indeed in some newspapers civil partnerships are already referred to as ‘marriages’.
“This equivalence helps to undermine the special status of marriage. Marriage is less ‘special’, has less status, if other forms of relationships, which are not equivalent to marriage, are given the benefits of marriage.”