Senator John McGahon- speech from 26 Oct 2022

Thank you for that. First of all, I'd like to start off by thanking my colleagues in the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion tonight. I think it's a very important one. And it's something that first came across my desk in my constituency office of the Dock a number of months ago. And it came across because what happened was that somebody's husband had passed away and they came into the office to see what type of financial supports were available. So I instantly thought a widow's pension, something like that. I thought that this already existed. I thought that something for people who are cohabiting already existed. That was my total lack of knowledge. And I've been a councillor for six years, a senator for two years, so I deal a lot with social protection queries. And I was amazed to see that this was an anomaly within the system itself, that there actually wasn't there. And that happens all the time in legislation. That happens all the time kind of with social protection where things come along, we notice that there's an anomaly or that there's a grey area, something for some reason or that falls through a crack. And then it's up to us as legislators or indeed you, Minister, to try and rectify that and to fix that. So it was brought home to me then a number of months ago when this individual met with me in my constituency office. It was brought home to me again this morning when I got an email from a person from my town called Maria. And Maria emailed me this morning. And I'm not going to read out the entire email, but I just summarise it. Alan, my long-term partner, died suddenly last year at the age of 38. She's saying taxes all our adult lives. I'm not entitled to the widow's pension from the department because we are not married. And quite rightly she believes the law discriminates against cohabiting couples and doesn't reflect modern Irish society. Another point that she actually did made, which is true because again, I deal with this at every stage of the day, that at every other stage throughout Alan and Maria's lives, whenever some sort of social protection query or whenever some sort of funding was going into the house, both of their incomes were assessed despite them not being married. So both of their incomes were still being assessed. So on one level you have, let's just say for any sort of social protection payment, I don't know what specifically, the department would assess both incomes. Whereas now, for this one particular payment, the department doesn't assess it at all. So I think it is a grey area that really does need to be resolved for thousands of people right across this country. And I think we'll all agree that we all agree on the same thing, that this has to be rectified. Like we, you know, there's no one on this side of the house, the other side of the house saying that this shouldn't be done. We all want to get there. But what the minister and I'm sorry, minister, that I wasn't here for your speech previously, but I've just read it very briefly there. What I can see from what you said tonight is that you want to take that bit of time out to look at the legislation and try and introduce it or to have it considered properly within 12 months. I know that's very difficult for people. This is something that if we could introduce tomorrow morning, we should introduce tomorrow morning. It really is. But one thing I do know, and I'm not saying this because Minister Humphreys is in my own party or my own ministry. I mean this sincerely. One thing I do know about Heather is that she really does stick to her word. And I have seen that time and time again in my working life with Heather and in this house. And I am absolutely confident that whatever Minister Humphreys has said this evening in relation to this, it will be followed through on. And I know that for a fact from my previous dealings with it. So what I would say, minister is that 12 months does seem a very long time. That can be very, very difficult for families here who have campaigned for this for so long. That can be very difficult for people like Maria who lost her husband last year. But on the same time, we have to get it right. And we have to make sure it's done in a right way to get that support to those families that really deserve this payment. I don't know what the solution is, minister, but from reading your remarks there, I'm happy to follow your lead on it. I know that you have the best interests of this particular issue at heart. And that's the point about this. We're all on the same page here and we all want to get the best outcome and we want to do it as soon as possible. The legislative process can be difficult. We all know that. But on the flip side, all of us were legislators here during COVID and we saw how quickly legislation could come around if we really want to do that as a government. So I think this is a very important debate tonight and I want to commend the Labour Party for bringing it forward. I think we're all absolutely on the same page. I know I certainly am. And the reason I'm on that page is because the experiences I've had with constituents coming into my office. And indeed, Maria's email this morning struck me particularly hard. The final thing about it is, and I am, you know, 31 years of age, perhaps I'll be married in the next few years, who knows. But the point is, and not to make light of it, but the point about it is that more and more people in Irish society maybe aren't getting married. Do you know what I mean? It's kind of, you know, 30 years ago in my parents' generation, it was natural to be married in your early 20s. If someone was to be married at that age, now you'd look at them like they've kind of, you know, two heads for want of a better word. I have no doubt that people of my generation, or even lower, as they get that older will say, well, what's the point of actually getting married? What's the point of having a religious ceremony, for example, if you were going to get married? Stuff like that. So Irish society is changing. And I really think as we move on that less and less people, you know, the concept of cohabitant just seems simpler and easier. So that's the way I believe Irish society is moving. And if you look at the concept of marriage over the last 20 or 30 years, that's very clear. And I think by introducing what the Labour Party are calling for tonight is recognising the movement of where Irish society is going. I think it is something we really should do. I really firmly do believe that. But I know you do as well, Minister. But I know you mean what you say, and I know you're inherently decent, and this is a strong thing to you. And finally, I have discussed this at depth with Porg, your special adviser over the last number of weeks, and he's been very, very helpful with it and has reiterated your commitment to it. And we are in your hands, Minister, but we are relying on you to try and do your very best for this very important issue.