Iarnród Éireann? Mary Coughlan? Mary Hanafin? For shame
Tags: bisexual, civil partnership, equality, gay, human rights, iarnrod eireann, irish rail, lesbian, marriage, marriage equality, mary coughlan, mary hanafin, relationships, Same-sex [All links open in a new window.]
I mentioned briefly in a recent post the Free Travel Pass scheme.
The Free Travel Pass scheme is a social welfare scheme which allows the Pass holder to be accompanied by their other half, the latter travelling for free – married or unmarried. Now, the scheme was the subject of a challenge by an elderly gay couple, with the assistance of the Equality Authority, in 2003 under equality legislation, because the guidelines of the Department of Social and Family Affairs said that a partner must only be of the opposite sex. As a result of the legal challenge, the Deparment settled – guilty, were we?
A few months later, however, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan – now our Tanaiste – enacted legislation enshrining the very discrimination that was contained in the impugned guidelines. Her Department defined the word “spouse” as meaning opposite-sex spouses only – whether married or unmarried – and applied this across several social welfare schemes: many more than just the Free Travel Pass scheme.
At the time, Coughlan defended her legalisation of discrimination by the State against homosexuals by claiming it to be just an interim measure to allow her Department to “review” social welfare and family policy. It was also convenient that the Irish government, in our equality legislation, gave itself permission to discriminate within Acts of the Oireachtas.
I called that earlier post, “Same-Sex Relationships: Are We Really Excluded from Equality?” And it seems my question has been answered during the week by Maman Poulet [link and link]: yes.
It transpires that Ireland’s rail service, Iarnród Éireann, is now actively enforcing the discriminatory legislative provisions. The company’s Barry Kenny has confirmed the practice in email correspondence to Maman Poulet, and deferred to the Department – now headed by Mary Hanafin – when it was put to him that active enforcement might just be anti-equality.
One of MP’s commenters, solicitor Simon McGarr succinctly points out that just because something is legalised, does not mean it’s legal.
Ireland, like over 40 European states, is bound by the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination in certain cases.
And the EU has recently adopted proposals to prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods and services.
The Irish government may have negotiated an employment equality get-out clause for institutions of a “religious ethos”, but there is no wriggling out of their obligations under European minimum standards as contained in law.
I wonder how many elderly same-sex couples use Ireland’s rail service, and I wonder if there are any legal reps out there up to an interesting challenge.
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You might also be interested in reading: Irish Rail’s Gaywatch – Confirm they are on the lookout to stop gay couples
You might also like to send emails to your local TD, and to:
info@welfare.ie
info@transport.ie
minister@welfare.ie
mary.hanafin@oireachtas.ie
noel.dempsey@oireachtas.ie
info@irishrail.ie
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Update:
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties issued a statement on this matter on Friday: linky.
Maman Poulet has updates here and here.
[...] mamanpoulet.com, we learned of Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) enforcing Mary Coughlan’s anti-gay laws. Perhaps it comes from the school of thought that thinks Katy Perry will burn in hell for all [...]
Any word on these reviews?
I haven’t heard anything yet myself, Ian. Will see if I can find out. I don’t know if MamanPoulet is on the case, or if she’s aware of any updates.
(On a slightly related note, but not coming from the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Law Reform Commission has published a consultation paper on certain family issues – although it seems to deal mostly with the rights of grandparents and unmarried fathers. Submissions are invited from individuals and organisations until around December, I think.)
We need to find a name at the Irish Council of Civil Liberties who could help us ,we are Survivors of Industrial Child Prisons in Ireland the Religious Orders have put a compansation package together for us survivors But >Mary Coughlan <Has been holding Secret meetings without informing the Survivors about what She is going to do with our compansation Mary Coughlan and the rest of her government say They are going to keep all our money and put it in a Government TRUST FUND, which NO survivor wants we want closure ,we want our compansation paid into our own bank accounts so we can make our lives more stress free and help our families , I dont want to have to BEG for help from some government official or office , we survivors will never see any of our compansation Mary Coughlan should be ashamed of herself there are many comments on paddydoyle.com from survivors objecting her Idea of THE TRUST FUND this is a CON.most of us never have recieved any help from any of so called groups for survivors they are only interested in their CONTINUED FUNDING , they say they have many of our names on their lists ? most of our names should not be on any lists as we Don’t use any of these so called services and have NOT had any help at all from anyone. But they Group leaders who attended the Secret meetings with Mary Coughlan refuse to open their books ,Mary Coughlan said some of it will go into an education fund They should have educated us in the CHILD PRISONS, we are mostly all in our 60′s and 70′s many not in good health ,that are alive still many have already passed on Her education Trust will be of NO use to us .We are been Bullied. look on >paddydoyle.com we do need help from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties . Can anyone sujest a name that we can get in touch with at the Civil Liberties .
Never would have thunk I would find this so idnispnsealbe.