The provision of civil partnership - or marriage - ceremonies for five gay couples at the British embassy in Dublin since August is "clear indication of the need" to recognise legally such partnerships here, the chief executive of the Equality Authority said yesterday.
Niall Crowley was responding to the confirmation yesterday by the embassy that five couples had married on its grounds in the past three months. The embassy is regarded as British territory and same-sex couples have been afforded legal recognition in Britain under the terms of the British Civil Partnership Act 2004 which came into force last year.
The spokeswoman for the embassy said none of the five ceremonies involved an Irish citizen. "There were three male couples and two female," she said. "They each either involved two British nationals or a British and a non-British national."
The embassy could only host civil partnership ceremonies where at least one of the individuals was a British national, she said. British embassies only provided the facility in states where there was no legal recognition of same-sex couples, she added.
The embassy was aware, she said, of "several" gay and lesbian couples based in this jurisdiction who had travelled to Northern Ireland or Britain to get married.
Mr Crowley said the Equality Authority believed this showed there was a need to provide legal recognition for gay and lesbian partnerships in the Republic.
