Ireland’s PM Announces Controversial Plans to Legalise Civil Partnerships

The Irish Prime Minister has said this week that Ireland will legalise civil partnerships for gay couples. Bertie Ahern promised that he would soon open new offices for the country’s main gay rights groups, report Associated Press.

The move will see Ireland follow England, Wales and Scotland who all introduced the Civil Partnerships Act at the end of 2005, giving homosexuals similar rights to marriage heterosexual couples.

Even though civil partnerships have purposely been made not to be marriages, it allows homosexuals to have the same rights to inheritance, state benefits as well as a host of other financial rights that normal married couples enjoy.