Irish Rail under fire for free travel pass ban on gay partners
Friday September 05 2008
IARNROD Eireann has ordered its ticket checking staff to stop the partners or companions of gay people using free-travel passes.
The move, outlined in a confidential memo, has provoked anger in the gay community which has accused Irish Rail of active discrimination.
Irish Rail only allows couples -- strictly defined as a man and a woman -- to use the passes, a practice dubbed "stone-age" by campaigners.
The company last night defended the latest crackdown, claiming it is simply enforcing Department of Social and Family Affairs rules. The department says "companion" travel passes can only be used by a married couple or a cohabiting couple -- defined as a man and woman.
Those receiving old-age pensions, blind persons' pensions, and disability allowances are those mostly entitled to free-travel passes.
An Irish Rail memo pasted inside a ticket booth at Dublin's Heuston Station refers to an amendment of the Social Welfare Bill in 2004 which was introduced to stop same-sex couples availing of free travel.
The memo, stamped 2008, was signed by the manager for revenue protection for Irish Rail and says gay couples "are not entitled" to a married/partner type pass.
It adds only those "of a different gender" are allowed to use the pass.
It is understood the latest crackdown was ordered after Irish Rail noticed a number of elderly same-sex couples had attempted to travel on the passes. But campaigners expressed surprise that Irish Rail has now decided to take a "proactive" approach to enforcing a ban they say is discriminatory.
Kieran Rose, chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), said the gay rights organisation would be concerned about such a move against homosexual couples.
"It highlights the urgency of bringing in the Civil Partnership Bill," he said of the bill introduced in June that would afford gay and cohabitating heterosexual couples the same legal status as married couples
Tribunal
It would appear that Irish Rail's travel pass policy would be illegal under the new legislation, which has yet to pass the Dail, he said.
But he stopped short of taking the Government to court or a tribunal to fight the ban.
"We'd be happy to meet with the relevant organisations to bring forward an appropriate solution," he told the Irish Independent last night.
A spokesman for the Equality Authority said it has not received any complaints to date on the matter.
However, in 2003 an Equality Authority tribunal ruled in favour of a gay couple who claimed CIE -- the parent company of Irish Rail -- was discriminatory in its free-travel pass scheme on the basis of sexual orientation.
A spokesman for Irish Rail said: "Iarnrod Eireann, in common with other public transport providers, is obliged to ensure the terms of the Free-Travel Scheme as set out by the Department of Social and Family Affairs are adhered to.
"The DSFA pays for free travel, and therefore it is the authority which sets the parameters of who is and who is not entitled to free travel."
- Ciaran Byrne and Allison Bray
