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FLAC repeats concerns on O'Meara case bill

FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres) has again expressed concern about some aspects of a bill designed to implement the Supreme Court decision in the O’Meara case. 

In an analysis, FLAC welcomed the bill’s proposal to expand entitlement to social-welfare schemes aimed at bereaved partners and families to qualified cohabitants and their children. 

It added, however, that it was concerned about the “levelling down” of the entitlements of certain other categories of bereaved families. 

Divorce or separation 

The Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025 was being debated in the Dáil this week. 

FLAC says that provisions in the bill would prevent families who have experienced a divorce or separation from accessing relevant social-welfare payments after a bereavement. 

Its chief executive Eilis Barry said: “At present, people who are separated or divorced from a spouse or civil partner may access a survivor’s pension if that spouse or civil partner dies, provided that they (the surviving partner) have not remarried and are not cohabiting with someone else.” 

Principles 

She stated that the 2025 bill would remove this entitlement, adding that these provisions might run contrary to the principles underpinning the O’Meara judgment. 

“The O’Meara decision was based on the principle that a family that suffers a financial loss as the result of the death of a parent should not be arbitrarily excluded from access to a survivor’s pension. 

“The legislation giving effect to that decision should not create a new category of children who cannot benefit from such payments on the basis of the marital status of their parents,” Barry said. 

Supreme Court ruling 

The court ruled last year that John O’Meara, whose long-term partner died in 2021, was entitled to a widower’s contributory pension (WCP). 

O’Meara and Michelle Batey, who died in 2021, had lived together and had three children, but had never married or entered a civil partnership. 

In his ruling, Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell had described the rules governing the payment of WCP under section 124 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 as “arbitrary and capricious”.