The Irish Human Rights Commission has called for the State to introduce legal recognition in the form of civil partnerships for same-sex partners and unmarried opposite-sex cohabiting couples.
The IHRC today published a study entitled The Rights of de facto Couples, which studied international human rights standards applying to de factocouples and Ireland's position on the issue.
The report found a number of areas where Irish law needs amendment to match international standards, in particular in the recognition of the rights of unmarried couples to legal protection. Under the European Convention on Human Rights, member states are obliged to respect the rights of de factocouples.
The Census of 2002 found there were over 77,700 one-parent families and de factocouples. Almost 30,000 of these family units had one or more children.
The authors of the report, Judy Walsh and Fergus Ryan, said that despite this huge number, Irish law still confines many rights and obligations, privileges and immunities solely to couples who are legally married. This means that Irish law discriminates against unmarried couples.
Ms Walsh warned that a failure to change the law to offer equal rights to unmarried couples could lead to "adverse ligitation outcomes" for the Government. The report also said treating a same-sex de factopartnership less favourably than a heterosexual de factocouple "may amount to unlawful sexual orientation discrimination".
"There is a compelling case to be made for the State to provide some formal level of legal recognition to same-sex partners" said the President of the IHRC, Dr Maurice Manning at the launch of the report, which was attended by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
Dr Manning accepted the debate over legal recognition of unmarried couples, of whatever sexual orientation, would "challenge many traditional and deeply held views and will confront many people with hard and difficult moral questions".
As Northern Ireland has recently introduced a civil partnership scheme for same-sex couples, the reports says it could be argued that the Republic is required to fulfil its obligations under the Belfast Agreement of 1998 and follow suit.
