Greens seek equality for 'contemporary family'

The Green Party today called for legislation to be introduced to ensure equality for same-sex marriages and civil partnerships as well as extra legal rights for cohabiting couples.

At the launch of a policy document today, the party said it believed legislative changes are necessary to provide a legal framework in areas including taxation, inheritance and maintenance and to offer protection for the "contemporary family".

Party spokesman on justice Ciaran Cuffe said: "Marriage plays a vital role in our society, but many aspects of this institution have changed since our Constitution was adopted in 1937. The Green Party believes it is necessary to update legislation to provide for the contemporary times we live in."

"We believe that same-sex couples should have the opportunity to marry and we propose to introduce a bill that would make all terms connected to marriage in the Constitution gender neutral," he said.

Party spokeswoman on Women's Affairs Bronwen Maher, called for protection for couples in areas such as pensions, social welfare, maintenance and succession rights.

"This protection would apply when a couple have been living together for three years or more or if a couple have been living together and have a child," she said.