Referendum Q&A: What are people voting for or against this Friday?
People will be handed two separate ballot cards to vote on two separate questions when they go into polling stations this week.
Unlike the recent votes to provide for abortion and marriage equality, we are unlikely to see crowds pack into Dublin Castle when the results of this week's referendums are announced.
But with voting cards arriving in homes across the country, people are now engaging with the questions that will be put to them around family and care this Friday.
However, many are finding that the upcoming referendums are not a simple yes or no, and technical terms have been causing some degree of confusion.
People will be handed two separate ballot cards to vote on two separate questions when they go into polling stations this week.
The first referendum relates to the definition of family in our Constitution. The second one aims to delete references to a woman's duties in the home and to add a recognition of all carers who look after family members.
People will be given a white ballot paper to vote on the part of our Constitution which relates to the family.
Article 41.1.1° currently states: “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.” In order to recognise how society has changed, it has been proposed that this line be expanded to recognise family "whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships".
As it stands now Article 41.3.1° states: “The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.” It is proposed that this line would be changed to remove the words "on which the family is founded".
You might think so, but there has been significant debate and disagreement over the proposed changes.
The Government has said the amendment will recognise the myriad of different families in Ireland today and not just those that involve married couples.
As Stephen Teap, who lost his wife to cervical cancer said: "Due to circumstances outside of my family's control, there is no recognition for a widower, a sole parent, a stay-at-home dad, and most importantly, for my children who are left with only one living parent to raise them. How can someone say today that we are not a family?"
However, Senator Michael McDowell has suggested it could introduce "huge uncertainty into our fundamental law”.
“The door will be open to what we call concurrent or successive families with multiple partners common to each," he said.
There has been much talk of durable relationships and what constitutes one, ever since the subject of throuples was brought up in the Dáil during a debate on the referendum.
Minister Roderic O'Gorman has made it clear that such relationships are not covered in the concept of durability and it is not covered in the expanded concept of the family being voted upon.
Mr O'Gorman told the Dáil that the Government wants to expand the definition of family beyond marriage as "some of the most marginalised families in the history of Ireland have been lone-parent families".
"I think this affirmative recognition is the correct approach in providing that the concept of family in Article 41 is no longer limited to the marital family and that it also encompasses other durable, committed relationships, like one-parent families, cohabiting couples and their children, if they have any," he said.
But things become a little more complicated when it comes to actually defining what durable is.
Chair of the Electoral Commission Justice Marie Baker said that if this week's vote does pass, the term "durable relationship" will be "a constitutional word" and it will ultimately be up to the courts to decide what exactly it means and who is regarded as being in one.
Voters will use a green-coloured ballot paper to decide on the so-called 'women in the home' clause in our Constitution.
Currently, Bunreacht na hÉireann recognises that "by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved". This part of the Constitution goes on to say that "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.”
If a yes vote is carried this reference to a mother's "duties in the home" will be removed and instead a new line introduced: “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.”
While many organisations have been campaigning for the removal of what has been described as "sexist" and "archaic" language in our Constitution for decades, some have taken the view that the amendments don't go far enough.
As a result, many have grudgingly backed the changes. As Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns put it: "We have ultimately been left with a choice between leaving misogynistic language in the Constitution and replacing it with language that is an improvement but should have gone much further."
Others, including Leas Ceann Comhairle Catherine Connolly, believe that the thinking behind the line that the Government wants to remove is good and the essence should be retained but altered to bring it up to date. She said the line which states "mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home," could have been altered to make it gender neutral.
Many on the no side say inserting the word ‘strive’ into the Constitution will effectively let the Government off the hook as it does not put an obligation on the State to provide support or funding to carers and their relatives.
Senator Tom Clonan, who cares for his disabled son, also points out: "The wording carefully chosen by government and its legal advisers omits any reference to rights to care in the community or outside the home as explicitly recommended by both the Citizen’s Assembly and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality."
However, Family Carers Ireland, which is advocating for a yes vote, says the amendment will strengthen the recognition and support of family carers and will provide groups with greater leverage when lobbying for additional supports.
Family Carers Ireland says the change will also highlight care as a vital contribution to society, rather than an invisible or undervalued task.
Ultimately many on the yes side believe that while the wording is not perfect, it is a step in the right direction.
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