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Tue 06 Jun 2009Partnership Bill to be welcomed
THE PUBLICATION of the Civil Partnership Bill, likely to be passed by the end of the year, is another major step in the transformation of Irish social legislation. It is easy to forget that homosexual acts were against the law 16 years ago, and it is only 14 years since the ban on divorce was removed from the Constitution.
Since then Irish society has changed greatly, with an estimated 12 per cent of households now made up of cohabiting couples, of whom about a third contain children. One child in three is born outside marriage.
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