The Tánaiste has said the Constitution’s understanding of family as based on marriage is out of date and should be ‘modernised’.

Leo Varadkar was commenting in the Dáil yesterday on the report from the Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality.

He said as far as he was concerned, “the definition of family in Bunreacht na hÉireann, the 1937 Constitution, is out of date”.

“It is based on a traditional, more Christian or Catholic view of a family, which is not wrong. It is a man and a woman, although that was changed to allow two men and two women. However, it is based on two married people, as it were, with children. That is what constitutes a family under the Constitution. If that were ever true, we all know it is not true anymore. There are many different forms of families in our society, and there is great diversity in what family means. I believe we should update, modernise and change that definition”.

He was responding to a request from Labour’s Alan Kelly on behalf of a man who lost his partner and now wants to claim the widower’s allowance, even though that is only available after marriage.

Mr Kelly said the couple “did not get around to getting married”.

Mr Varadkar said he would ask the Minister for Social Protection to see if changes can be made to provide benefits in cases of long-term unmarried couples where one person dies.