Doubts over children’s referendum

SERIOUS doubts overshadowed a way forward for a children’s rights referendum last night after the Government effectively kicked to touch any plans to adapt its two-year-old proposals for a constitutional change.

A shocked Oireachtas Committee on Children’s Rights heard how the Government look set to resort to supporting its original 2007 constitutional amendment changes.

But the decision, which the Minister for Children said was based on legal advice, was strongly criticised by TDs. Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter called the 2007 Bill “defective” and very “flawed”. Minister Barry Andrews told committee members that the advice was that the 2007 Bill did concentrate on the rights of the child and deal with the issue of all children being treated equally.