IT’S voting time on Friday. We’re all being asked to make a decision on two amendments to the Constitution which may not, in fact, make much of a difference to anyone immediately but might, actually, result in a big mess in future for some.
Clear? Not really.
Since its writing in 1937 there have been 32 amendments to the Constitution’s text. Some have been hugely momentous in the country’s history. Back in 1972, Ireland voted to join the European Economic Community, in 1995, Ireland voted to remove the ban on divorce, and in 1998 a whopping 94% supported the Good Friday Agreement amendment.
There have been other less earth- shattering ones. We voted to introduce a ban on the death penalty in 2001. The lack of capital punishment in Ireland is something I completely took for granted, assuming it was provided for in the first draft. Nope! I missed that history lesson.
The last execution occurred in 1954, was prohibited by law since 1990, and has a constitutional ban since 2001. I have zero memory of any debates for that referendum, but I was 20 years old at the time so perhaps referendums that didn’t make a material difference to my life didn’t register.
The last two referendums are crystal clear because they truly got to the heart of core aspects of living - love, reproduction and human rights. We all have a stake in those.
In 2015, 62% of voters chose Tá for same-sex marriage and, in 2018, 66% of Irish votes voted yes in to remove Article 40.3.3 and “provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy” was inserted.
Things are less black and white when it comes to the Family and Care Referendums.
I have been hearing dissenting voices over the last few weeks saying the proposed amendments that we’re voting on this Friday are going to create confusion and future problems.
So I sat down over the weekend with the Electoral Commission pamphlet and my favoured search engine to make up my mind.
The Family Amendment is pretty straightforward to me. As the child of a single parent family who grew up in the 1980s, it is beyond overdue to update the status of Family in the Constitution.
I was seven years old in 1987 when the Status of Children Act finally abolished the status of illegitimacy to equalise the rights under the law of all children, whether born within or outside of marriage.
In 2022, 43% of babies were born outside of marriage or civil partnerships. Updating the Constitution in 2024 to reflect this reality seems like a no-brainer to me.
People like former attorney general Micheal McDowell are warning that “durable relationships” is a wishy-washy term that will open up a Pandora’s box of legal challenges and questions. So be it.
If there are implications for tax, pensions and family law that will lead to practical improvements in families, let’s be having them.
When it comes to the Care amendment, there are many people that I respect arguing for a No vote. All are in agreement of the need to remove the antiquated reference to a woman’s life in the home (even though I actually largely agree that the common good cannot be achieved without the immense amount of unpaid cooking, cleaning and caring work of, mainly, women and that work should be counted and supported more... but that is for another column!)
Senator Tom Clonan is a disability activist and father of a son with scoliosis. Clonan has argued that the consequence of the wording of the Care amendment is that the HSE and Stare are “off the hook” in supporting disabled citizens to live independently and lays the responsibility on family. He is calling for a No vote.
Respected human rights lecturer Dr Maeve O’Rourke, who has campaigned for justice for the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, has also called for a No vote and outlined how the government’s wording is a rejection of the conclusions of the 99- member Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality.
Instead of just simply deleting the sexist language, the government is replacing it with a new article about caring. However, the new wording is not what the Citizens’ Assembly and Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality voted on.
Their wording: “The State recognises that care within and outside the home and Family gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved. The State shall, therefore, take reasonable measures to support care within and outside the home and Family.”
This is a much more encompassing version of care that doesn’t place the onus of responsibility on families to provide care, and doesn’t include the get-out-of-jail-card line that the State “shall strive to support such provision”.
FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centre) has also called for a No vote on the Care amendment, saying: “The referendum wordings differ significantly from the proposals which emerged from the Citizens’ Assembly and Oireachtas Gender Equality Committee and it remains unclear why this is so.”
FLAC argues that “the rushed process for scrutinising and finalising the amendments has contributed to the weaknesses of the proposals now before the people”.
We’ve lived with the sexist wording of a woman’s “life within the home” for 87 years. I think we can live with it a bit longer to make sure we get it right for all members of society.
That is what true equality looks like.
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Kathriona Devereux: I say 'Yes' to Family change on Friday, but 'No' to the Carer one
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05.03.2024
IT’S voting time on Friday. We’re all being asked to make a decision on two amendments to the Constitution which may not, in fact, make much of a difference to anyone immediately but might, actually, result in a big mess in future for some.
Clear? Not really.
Since its writing in 1937 there have been 32 amendments to the Constitution’s text. Some have been hugely momentous in the country’s history. Back in 1972, Ireland voted to join the European Economic Community, in 1995, Ireland voted to remove the ban on divorce, and in 1998 a whopping 94% supported the Good Friday Agreement amendment.
There have been other less earth- shattering ones. We voted to introduce a ban on the death penalty in 2001. The lack of capital punishment in Ireland is something I completely took for granted, assuming it was provided for in the first draft. Nope! I missed that history lesson.
The last execution occurred in 1954, was prohibited by law since 1990, and has a constitutional ban since 2001. I have zero memory of any debates for that referendum, but I was 20 years old at the time so perhaps referendums that didn’t make a material difference to my life didn’t register.
The last two referendums are crystal clear because they truly got to the heart of core aspects of living - love, reproduction and human rights. We all have a stake in those.
In 2015, 62% of........
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