Children’s referendum on election day a step closer

A REFERENDUM that will enshrine the rights of the child in the Constitution could go before the electorate on general election day, Children’s Minister Barry Andrews said last night.

The long-awaited referendum, first mooted by Bertie Ahern when he was Taoiseach, moved a step closer after Mr Andrews’ department finalised the wording and issued it to children’s rights groups and opposition spokespersons yesterday.

However, the minister said it could only take place on the same day of a general election if the election was held on March 25 or later.

He said while the Government has given him permission to start work on a referendum bill, the need to establish a referendum commission — and the high number of bills which need to move through the Oireachtas — meant holding it before March 25 “would be very tight”.

The minister said the new wording was “a significant move forward” from a Government proposal in 2007 and the wording reached by an all-party consensus last year by the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children.

It is understood that some children’s rights groups have already sounded concerns about the new wording, while Labour’s Brendan Howlin, who also sat on the Joint Committee, said any referendum should now be delayed until after the general election.

The minister’s department had sought to alter the Joint Committee’s wording due to what Mr Andrews had described as “unintended consequences” that could have arisen.

One such issue was the likelihood that it could impact on deportation orders, as the rights of any child to be brought up by their parents could effectively block that person from being deported in such cases.

The minister said that under the new wording, “we guarantee as far as practicable to protect and vindicate children’s rights. That guarantee was not there in the 2007 or 2010 wording”.

“Regarding intervention where a family has failed or there is a neglect issue where the state has to intervene, such as making a supervision order, we have put in the phrase ‘regardless of marital status’. That has been more or less the law but there has been some doubt about it.

“The other main improvement is that the voice of the child has a place in the wording — the 2007 wording had nothing about the voice of the child.”

The ‘voice of the child’ aspect could feature in adoption cases, where the child has the capacity to express a view.

The chairperson of the joint committee, Mary O’Rourke TD, last night welcomed the publication of the wording.