Neither the Gardai nor Revenue have raised any red flag to two straight male friends marrying merely as a scheme to avoid paying inheritance tax. The Sunday Independent reported at the weekend that the Gardai usually investigate the validity marriages only in circumstances where immigration is an issue, not taxation. Revenue said it cannot investigate how legitimate a marriage is. “The validity of marriages is not a matter for Revenue,” said a spokeswoman.

In the marriage referendum of 2015, the Referendum Commission confirmed to The Iona Institute that under the new definition of marriage two heterosexual friends of the same sex would be permitted to marry. The Iona Institute said at the time that this clearly demonstrated that marriage was being turned into a legally recognized friendship pact rather than the conjugal union of man and woman.