Today the High Court is hearing an application from Tipperary man Johnny O’Meara. In 2021, very tragically, Johnny’s partner, Michelle Batey died after an illness. Johnny contacted Deputy Kelly and me after he had been refused widower’s pension and recognition from the Department of Social Protection. It did not recognise his sad loss because he and Michelle had not been married. There was no recognition by the State of the 20 years they had shared living together, of their children, Aoife, Jack and Tommy, or of the taxes he and Michelle had paid throughout their working lives. We in the Labour Party believe that it is time for the State to recognise cohabiting couples in this way. Will the Government prepare to hold a referendum first to make the constitutional definition of family more inclusive and not just limit it to the family based on marriage? We are in fact looking at this in the Committee on Gender Equality.

Second, will the Government accept the Labour Party’s cohabiting couples Bill which seeks to address the situation Johnny finds himself in and will it seek to end this inequality for cohabiting couples?

We will certainly examine the Bill. Sometimes there is also the law of unintended consequences when it comes to these things so we will have to examine it carefully but we will do so with an open mind. I firmly support an amendment to our Constitution to modernise the definition of family which is more reflective of the world we live in than was the case in 1937 but there are many referendums on the go at the moment. It is an important one, however, and one I would like to bring forward.

In some parts of the country renters have been hit with staggering rent increases of up to 75%. This is utterly unacceptable and no renter can afford those kinds of increases. The way in which the rent pressure zones rules have been written means that those parts of the country will never be declared a rent pressure zone. Is the Tánaiste aware of this problem, what is the Government going to do about it and will the rent pressure zones be extended to cover the whole country?

I thank the Deputy. I am aware of the problem but I am not sure if it is correct to say that the areas affected can never be defined as rent pressure zones. I will certainly let the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, know that the Deputy has raised the matter and I will ask him to reply to the Deputy again.