Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010

The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 is an Act of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) which allows same-sex couples to enter into civil partnerships. The act also provides rights for participants in long-term cohabiting relationships who have not entered into a civil partnership or marriage. There is no difference, in the act, in the rights and obligations accorded to opposite sex cohabiting couples or same sex cohabiting couples, however there are significant differences between the rights and obligations accorded to Civil Partners (same-sex) and those accorded to married couples (opposite-sex). The Act marks the penultimate legal step towards the recognition of same-sex partnerships; same-sex partners were afforded the option of marriage following the Marriage Act 2015.

It had been expected that the first Civil Partnership ceremony under the law would take place in April 2011 due to the need for further legislation to update Ireland's tax code and social welfare laws, and the legal requirement to give three months notice. However, the legislation does provide a mechanism for exemptions to be sought through the courts, and the first partnership between two men was registered on 7 February 2011. As required by the legislation, and contrary to some subsequent press coverage, the ceremony took place in public at the Civil Registration Office in Dublin. It was not until 5 April 2011, with the registration of a partnership between Hugh Walsh and Barry Dignam, that the media covered a partnership ceremony for the first time in detail.

Civil partners must wait two years to get their partnership dissolved. Judicial separation is not allowed. Civil partners are not allowed to adopt children jointly, as married couples are, though one civil partner may adopt singly. Also, civil partners cannot have joint guardianship over any children they raise together. The act provides for the succession of property, pension entitlements, domestic violence, and maintenance in the event of a breakdown of a relationship. The act does not make any provision for tax entitlements and allowances nor does it grant any social welfare benefits to civil partners. These issues are to be dealt with in two separate bills. The act makes provision for recognition of foreign relationships in Ireland as civil partnerships. The act does not deal with residency of same-sex couples that wish to become civil partnered in Ireland.

The act was passed in the Dáil without a vote on 1 July 2010 and by the Seanad on 8 July 2010 by a vote of 48–4. It was signed into law by the President on 19 July 2010. The Minister for Justice and Law Reform Dermot Ahern said: "This is one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation to be enacted since independence. Its legislative advance has seen an unprecedented degree of unity and support within both Houses of the Oireachtas."

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