Child rights vote ‘will not be long-fingered’

THE Minister for Children Barry Andrews yesterday said a proposed referendum on children’s rights will not be “long-fingered”, amid accusations that the Government is seeking to redraft the agreed wording.

Mr Andrews stressed, however, that any Constitutional amendment was “not a magic wand”.

The minister, speaking before the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, came under fire from Fine Gael children’s spokes- man Charlie Flanagan and Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín O Caoláin over whether he was delaying the naming of the referendum date, or moving away from the consensus achieved by an all-party Oireachtas Committee which published its proposed wording earlier this year.