So much of the David Parris case beggars belief, but the reasoning behind Trinity’s decision to challenge his partner’s entitlement to a widower’s pension is the most exasperating. The entire case, which Trinity spent €60,000 litigating, is simply being fought to defend an arcane legal precedent feared by employers across the EU. Their concern? That thousands of gay widowers will claim pensions through a so-called gold-digger’s clause. But such a fear is rendered laughable by the reality. There can’t be more than a handful of such old couples across Europe, making them largely insignificant burdens to employers like Trinity.
As with any type of controversy that has a student at its centre, the Katie Ascough case in University College Dublin has engendered a certain type of criticism: that, because she is a student, she should really just be given a break. Let’s put aside, for the moment, that her decision cost University College Dublin Students’ Union several thousand euro. Given it is widely accepted that the media’s justification for going after a public figure increases in proportion to their stature, it’s worth asking at what point these people think a “student” should be held accountable. How about when they’re the president of Ireland’s largest students’ union, the elected representative of more than 30,000 students?
Fianna Fáil, the party that dithered and dothered when it came to the 2015 marriage equality referendum, yesterday reaffirmed its status as the party that represents the Ireland of a bygone era. By overwhelmingly voting to support the rights of the unborn, and hence voting down a motion that would have seen the party support the repeal of the eighth amendment, it is now once again at odds with the young people of this country. This is the same party whose leader yesterday accused Fine Gael of taking a “leap to the right” under Leo Varadkar. There may be some merits to that argument, but Micheál Martin certainly doesn’t get to make it.
