Civil Partnerships For Ireland?

Ireland's minister for justice Dermot Ahern says that he will seek the enactment of a nationwide civil partnerships law for gay couples by the end of 2009.

He told the Sunday Business Post that the commitment give state recognition and protection to civil partnerships will be ‘‘implemented in full through the forthcoming Civil Partnership Bill, which I will publish within weeks’’. According to the newspaper, the bill is expected to go second stage debate in the Dáil in the autumn, and will be enacted by December. Ahern's statement was welcome by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network. Its chair Kieran Rose said: "This is an historic civil rights reform that will resolve many immediate and pressing issues faced by lesbian and gay couples and the minister and the government [is] to be congratulated on bringing forward this complex and comprehensive legislation and committing to its early enactment.

The Irish government has "ruled out" any consideration of full marriage equality.