The Government may have to delay the introduction of gay civil unions due to costs to the Exchequer in excess of €30m per year, The Irish Catholic has learned. According to senior sources in the Department of Finance, the crisis in the public finances makes the introduction of domestic partnerships for same-sex and cohabiting couples ''untenable in the current climate''.
Introducing legislation granting marriage-like tax status to unmarried couples is estimated to cost the Exchequer in excess of €30m per year in lost income and capital tax.
The Irish Catholic understands that the Department of Finance is lobbying hard to have the measures delayed due to the worsening public finances. However, officials in the Department of Justice are keen to press ahead with the legislation.
The proposals were due to be published before April 9, however, that deadline passed and a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice told The Irish Catholic this week that ''we have as yet no precise date for its publication''.
The Department of Finance estimates the initial cost of the Bill to be €30m per annum as co-habiting couples in a civil partners will have to get income tax benefits.
The Government estimates 10,000 couples will enter civil partnerships. However, the most recent Census shows co-habiting couples are the fastest growing family type in the country.
Census 2006 showed the total number of co-habiting couples was 121,800 -- up from 77,600 in 2002. And almost two-thirds of them were couples without children. Co-habiting couples represented 11.6 per cent of all family units in 2006 compared with 8.4 per cent in 2002.
In a briefing note prepared for Finance, Minister Brian Lenihan, officials warn the legislation ''could have implications for the tax treatment of such couples including costs (latest estimate is about €25 million per annum to give married income-tax treatment to 10,000 couples; there would also be costs in relation to capital taxes).''
Including capital taxes, the move could cost the exchequer in excess of €30m per year in lost revenue.
The introduction of civil partnerships was a key concession granted by Fianna Fáil to the Green Party in the negotiations to form a Government following the last General Election and the delay is likely to put further strain on the coalition.
Fianna Fáil and the Greens have already locked horns over cuts in funding for the Equality Authority.
The revised estimates for Government spending are not likely to reverse the 43 per cent cut in funding for the authority announced last December.
This is despite a pledge by Green Party leader, John Gormley, to his party's Ard Fheis in February, to reverse the cutbacks.
It is understood that the Department of Finance has refused to make more money available for Equality Authority funding.
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