State ‘kowtowed’ to churches over care of children: Gilmore

The State “kowtowed” to churches for decades when it came to the care of children and the Government’s proposed constitutional amendment is needed to put things right, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.

The Labour leader was speaking in Dublin yesterday at the launch of his party’s campaign for a yes vote in the Nov 10 referendum.

He said that in a way, the referendum was “closing a circle” for his party, as Tom Johnson, the first parliamentary Labour leader, had made the welfare of children a key provision of the democratic programme for the first Dáil in 1919.