legislation which outlawed homosexual acts was repealed in 1993. The Dáil and the Seanad passed the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act in 2010, which recognised civil partnerships between same-sex couples. It permits same-sex couples to register their relationship before a registrar. A Sunday Times poll carried out in March 2011 showed that 73% of people believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, while 60% believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children.
Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce an environmental levy for plastic shopping bags in 2002 and a public smoking ban in 2004. It was also the first European country to ban incandescent lightbulbs in 2008 and in-store tobacco advertising and product display in 2009. Capital punishment is constitutionally banned, and Ireland was one of the main nations involved in the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, formally endorsed in Dublin. Ireland ranks fifth in the world in terms of gender equality. In 2011, Ireland was ranked the most charitable country in Europe, and second most charitable in the world, after the United States
