FINE GAEL justice spokesman Charles Flanagan expressed concern about “the glaring omission of children” in the terms of the Civil Partnership Bill.

Such an omission failed to recognise that “one-third of the 2,090 same-sex cohabiting couples registered in the 2006 census have children” Mr Flanagan said.

Mr Flanagan said that the issue was brought home to him when a former constituent, Bairbre Gill, was killed in a road collision.

“Bairbre and her partner comprised a same-sex couple and they had a baby son whom Bairbre’s partner had given birth to,” said Mr Flanagan. Bairbre’s death had left her partner and son “in a legal quagmire with no relief”.

Welcoming the Bill, Mr Flanagan said that until recently, the State had been characterised by “oppression, patriarchy . . . and a particularly rigid and domineering brand of Catholicism”.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said the absence of official recognition for same-sex relationships helped to reinforce prejudice and inequality. He said the Bill would change the legal landscape for same-sex couples.

“As well as dealing with many vital and pressing legal difficulties experienced by same-sex couples, including maintenance, pension provision, protection of tenancies, their shared home, and succession, it will . . . address very practical matters,” he said. “The Bill ensures that they will always be entitled to visit if one is hospitalised, can be treated as next of kin, and on the death of the partner are entitled to notify the death and arrange the funeral.”

Mr Ahern said that the Bill created for the first time in Irish law a scheme under which same-sex couples could formally declare their allegiance to one another and commit themselves to a range of duties and responsibilities and at the same time be subject under new law to a series of protections.

Labour’s Brendan Howlin said the Bill did not provide for same-sex marriage and so did not represent true equality.