Relationships and your rights in Ireland

Information

Cohabiting relationships

Cohabiting couples do not possess the same legal rights and obligations as married couples or civil partnerships in Irish law. This has important implications for a number of areas in your life - including inheritance rights, property ownership, custody and guardianship of children, adoption and fostering. There is a redress scheme for cohabiting couples who have been in a long-term cohabiting relationship.

Getting married

CitizensInformation.ie provides information that you need if you are getting married in Ireland and abroad, including information on different legal ways of getting married, how marriage will change your legal status, legal prerequisites for marriage, notification requirements , the registration of marriage and getting married abroad.

Same-sex relationships

The definition of 'marriage' in Ireland does not include same-sex partnerships, so same-sex couples cannot become legally married here. There is, however, provision in Ireland for the legal registration of same-sex couples as civil partnerships. CitizensInformation.ie provides information on how civil partnership will change your legal status, legal prerequisites for civil partnership, notification requirements and the registration of a civil partnership.

The rights of cohabiting same-sex couples are similar to the rights of cohabiting opposite-sex couples. Our section on cohabiting couples looks at various aspects of your life with your partner. We also examine the issue of surrogate motherhood.

Separation, divorce and dissolution

The end of a marriage or a civil partnership is a difficult and traumatic process. The information provided on the Citizens Information website will help you deal with the different practical aspects of a marriage or civil partnership breakdown.

Information is available on the legal options following a marital breakdown and the legal options following a civil partnership breakdown, such as divorce, judicial separation, separation agreements and dissolution. There is also information on what happens the family or shared home and maintenance agreements.

Grandparents

Grandparents also have certain rights in relation to their grandchild. Where grandparents are having difficulty in maintaining contact with their grandchild, under the Children Act 1997 they can apply for leave to apply for access to the child through the District Court. If the grandparents are the main carer of the child and the child is not being properly financial maintained by either or both parents, the grandparents can apply to the District Court for a maintenance order. Grandparents may be able to adopt or foster a grandchild. Where parents dies without making a will appointing someone to act as guardian of their child, the grandparents can apply to the District Court to be appointed guardians. Treoir have published a booklet entitled Being there for them (pdf) for grandparents of children whose parents are not married to each other.