Government approves legislation to allow for two referenda in March

The Bills will be published in the coming days. Picture: File photo

The Government has approved the legislation which will allow for two referenda to be held in March.

Cabinet met today to approve the publication of the Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (The Family) Bill 2023 and the Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023.

The Bills propose two amendments to the Constitution which will amend Article 41 of the Constitution to provide for a wider concept of family and delete Article 41.2 of the Constitution to remove text on the role of women in the home, and insert a new Article 42B to recognise family care.

The Bills will be published in the coming days and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Mr Roderic O’Gorman, has indicated that he intends to introduce the Bills to the Houses of the Oireachtas at the earliest opportunity.

The referenda will be held on March 8, International Women's Day. The Thirty-Ninth Amendment of the Constitution (The Family) Bill 2023 proposes to amend Article 41.1.1 to insert the words “whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships”. 

This would change the line that "the State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law".

It also proposes the deletion of the words “on which the Family is founded” from Article 41.3.1, which refers to the institution of marriage.

The Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023 proposes to delete Article 41.2 from the Constitution which reads:

"In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home."

The bill would then insert an Article 42B with the following wording: 

"The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision."

Following the passage of the legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas, An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the Electoral Commission, will prepare a statement containing a general explanation of the subject matter of the proposals for the referendums and of the text thereof in the relevant Bills and any other information relating to those matters that the Commission considers appropriate. It shall also be the function of the Electoral Commission to promote public awareness of referendums and to encourage people to vote.