[article]Iarnród Éireann apologises to same-sex couple over incident

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by Irish Times

Iarnród Éireann apologises to same-sex couple over incident
CONOR POPE

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN has apologised to a same-sex couple after a member of its staff questioned the validity of their Department of Social Protection-issued travel pass and refused to allow them board a train from Dublin to Cork on Sunday.

Noel Dolan is on disability allowance and qualifies for a travel pass which also covers his partner Juan Carlos Camacho Suarez, whom he married in Spain, where gay marriage is legal. On Sunday the couple used their pass to travel to Dublin to take part in the Noise March for Marriage Equality but on the homeward journey, an Iarnród Éireann staff member at Heuston Station said their pass was invalid and refused to allow them board their train.

The couple asked to see a superior and, according to Mr Dolan, were again told that “Irish Rail doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage”. Mr Dolan said he challenged this but the supervisor said that although he was not going to refuse the couple access to the train, “same-sex couples were not allowed to use a travel pass”.

Yesterday Mr Dolan said: “The Department of Social Protection pays Irish Rail for tickets issued using those passes. It really is none of Irish Rail’s business who I’m married to, male or female . . . as long as the pass is valid and the photo ID is valid and the spouse/partner has signed their part and there is no fraud being attempted. Irish Rail gets paid for tickets issued, end of.”

He said it was “beyond comprehension that Irish Rail would behave in such a manner in 2011 with civil partnerships being legal almost eight months and same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions being recognised since early January this year”.

When contacted by this newspaper, Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny said it wished to “sincerely apologise” to Mr Dolan and his partner. In a letter sent to the couple last night, Mr Kenny said they should not have been prevented from boarding train. “We would stress that Iarnród Éireann has no policy in relation to free travel for those in same-sex or any other types of marriage. Our only role is to ensure that the provisions of the free travel scheme as set out by the Department of Social Protection are enforced,” Mr Kenny said.

He said that last December the Department of Social Protection wrote to inform public transport companies of changes to the provisions of the free travel scheme arising from the Civil Partnership Act.

“These changes included the provision that the DSP [Department of Social Protection] would recognise under the free travel scheme people of the same sex party to civil partnership registration or parties to a legal relationship.

“Regrettably, our colleagues in Heuston had not been made aware of this change, and believed that they were correctly applying the provisions of the DSP free travel scheme,

Mr Kenny said Iarnród Éireann was committed to “issuing to all relevant staff around the network this week a notice to ensure that this matter is explicitly clarified, and to ensure that such an incident cannot recur”.

© Irish Times 2011
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...62.html?via=mr

[Mark Gleeson]

This is not the first case of this type

Until late 2010 the rules from the Department of Social Protection were that the partner had to be of a different sex to the pass holder. There were some exceptions to this and this was communicated within all the companies in the free travel scheme. A memo was circulated within the CIE group reinforcing the rules as laid down by the DSP

In 2010 as a result of a number of changes in Irish law and challenges the rules changed such that the legal partner regardless of sex could travel as a partner under the scheme.

It is clear and indeed admitted by Irish Rail above that this was the case and that there was a failure to train its staff accordingly to do the opposite to what they were trained to do originally in these cases. This again highlights the poor training and lack of management within Irish Rail to ensure compliance with an issue that was very likely to result in serious consequences if not handled in line with the new legal position.

[drumcondra commuter]

FYI, Suzy Byrne has a blog post about it here.

[Mark Gleeson]

For reference the pre end 2010 wording was

If you have a free travel pass and you are married or cohabiting (that is, living with a man or woman as husband and wife), you are entitled to a Free Travel Pass which allows your partner to accompany you free of charge when traveling.

Post end 2010 wording is

If you have a free travel pass and you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting, you are entitled to a Free Travel Pass which allows your partner to accompany you free of charge when travelling.

[dowlingm]

thread on same topic with comments from IE and DB staff members:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2056358837