Lesbian couple given go-ahead to challenge status

The High Court has given the go-ahead to an Irish lesbian couple to challenge the State's refusal to recognise their marital status.

Ms Katherine Zappone and Ms Ann Louise Gilligan claim there is no legal impediment to recognition of a same-sex marriage.

The women were married in Vancouver, Canada, a year ago.

They say the refusal of the Revenue to grant them the same tax reliefs as available to an opposite-sex married couple discriminates against them on grounds of gender and/or sexual orientation and breaches their rights under the Constitution, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

Yesterday, Mr Gerard Hogan SC, and Ms Ivana Bacik, for the couple, applied for leave to take judicial review proceedings in which they will seek, among various reliefs, orders compelling the State and Revenue to recognise their marriage in Canada and to treat them as a married couple under the Tax Acts.

In his ruling this morning, Mr Justice McKechnie said all the women had to do was to prove they have an arguable case. He said he had "no doubt" they had reached the required threshold to seek a judicial review.

However, Mr Justice McKechnie added that his ruling "should not be taken as any reflection on the ultimate outcome of the case".

Mr Justice McKechnie told the court the case was not just about rights under the tax acts but about recognition of a same sex marriage.

"It far transcends the individual applicants in these proceedings and affects society as a whole," he added.

If the couple win their case Mr Justice McKechnie said a "stream of consequences, legal, cutural, ethical and religious, would follow".

The case will now proceed by way of plenary summons being served on the Chief State Solicitor acting on behalf of the Revenue Commissioners.

Mr Justice McKechnie granted the couple four weeks to serve the summons.