Following on from yesterday’s article in the Independent, my parents and I are doing a radio interview on the Today with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio One tomorrow morning, at 10am. I’ve been looking into the Civil Partnership Bill more, and have come to realise how much it leaves out, specifically in terms of children and inheritence. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties‘ review of the Heads of Bill has really helped with this, spelling out what it means in a very clear way.

So, how does the Bill fail children of same-sex couples in terms of inheritance? Well, firstly the child does not have any legal right to an automatic claim from the estate of the non-biological parent in the case of her/ his death.  Secondly, and equally as importantly, even if the child is provided for in a will, the child does not appear to be considered to be a relative of the person, and as such is subject to the same inheritance tax levels as a stranger. To articulate this properly, according to the Irish Revenue Commissioners’ website a non-biological son or daughter of a same-sex partner would be able to inherit tax-free up to €23,908, compared with a biological son or daughter’s threshold of €478,155. In this way, I would agree with Fergus Ryan’s statement on Newstalk that “families with children are placed in a very vulnerable position”.