Letters to the Editor: The 'no' side in care referendum should show why current text is better
Gearóid Murphy writes: 'In my view, those advocating for a no vote need to do more than just say why the proposed amendment could be better.' Stock picture: PA
I refer to the article by Senator Tom Clonan as to why he is voting no in the ‘Care’ referendum — ‘Amendment excludes right of disabled to independence’ (Irish Examiner, February 19).
I would like to make a small response.
First of all, at no point does Senator Clonan explain why the proposed amendment requires that disabled citizens must rely on family members for care or how it “deliberately excludes the right to an independent, autonomous life in the community”.
He makes several reasonable criticisms of how the government has acted in relation to the rights of people with disabilities and cites proposed measures which government parties have voted against. However, none of these have anything to do with the actual wording of the amendment.
Nowhere in the amendment does it exclude the right of people with disabilities to live in the community. It fails to give people that right, true. However, there is no constitutional right to this at the moment, so voting no won’t create any more of a right for disabled people to live in the community than voting yes will.
It is worth mentioning that Senator Clonan’s negative experience with the HSE happened under the current constitutional provision, which will remain if there is a no vote.
Furthermore, voting yes absolutely does not mean the government is prevented from creating these rights for people with disabilities by ordinary legislation — such as the amendment to the Private Members’ Bill on Care which Senator Clonan referenced in his article.
It simply means that they won’t be obliged to do this — but it is important to stress that this will also be the position in the case of a no vote.
There is one key difference to voting yes though, and that is that a yes vote will also remove the Constitutional reference to women’s “duties in the home”, while a no vote will leave it as it is.
It is true that the proposed amendment does not create enforceable rights. However, it also doesn’t remove any rights and at least creates an aspirational reference to family care.
In my view, those advocating for a no vote need to do more than just say why the proposed amendment could be better.
They need to show why the current text about women’s “duties in the home” is better than the amendment which is being proposed. Because a no vote is essentially a vote for the current text.
The price tag for the proposed Dublin Metrolink is said to be €9.5bn. Given what’s happened with the national children’s hospital, why doesn’t the State double the amount at the beginning, and then brag at the end — if there is an end — that they’ve come in way under budget?
The people of Gaza are facing the prospect of famine. Humanitarian aid is not reaching all areas because of the Israeli ground invasion.
The once viable farms are no longer producing food and as a consequence the little food that is available is very expensive.
In Gaza the day is defined by a single meal. Children too young to understand what is happening are crying out in hunger. If they are lucky they are given bread with a little salt.
Yet in the midst of this horror Ireland is exporting live animals to Israel. Two shipments of 4,000 young bulls left Ireland in the last two months.
Leo Varadkar has said Ireland ‘would continue to take action in response to Israel’s campaign in Gaza’. I’m not sure what that action is but this I do know: It is business as usual with Israel and it is shameful on so many levels.
The call from Ireland and Spain for a review of the trade agreement with Israel is welcome, but a belated development for tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza and the West Bank — ‘Ireland and Spain call for review of EU agreement with Israel’ (Irish Examiner, online, February 14).
The net value of Israel’s diamond exports in 2022 was $4.96bn; Israel’s military expenditure in 2022 was $23.3bn. There is a case for sanctioning Israeli diamonds considering they are a significant source of funding for war crimes in Palestine.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s announcement for a review of the EU-Israel trade agreement, which includes a human rights clause, is very encouraging especially that Ireland has united with Spain to insist on such an audit at EU level.
Ending Israel’s trade agreement with the EU would send a clear message that repeatedly breaking international humanitarian law will not be tolerated. Let us hope this happens and is not blocked by the pro-Israel states in the EU.
The FAI’s long, drawn out, and up to now fruitless search for a new senior men’s team manager is beginning to make the John Delaney reign look like the golden era.
Finally, with a long list of people ruling themselves out, is there anyone out there that actually wants to manage the team?
I wonder whether memories go back to October 7 let alone 20 years or whether people have read the history of 1967 and 1948.
At any time since Israel mobilised October 7, Hamas could have returned the hostages taken and cut short the bombing. Yet those who only have one-way, half mirror glasses blame Israel alone. Mr Netanyahu might be a yahoo but Yaha Sinwar is obtusely sinful.
In 1948, Arab states and Palestinians rejected two state partition. They lost and have been gaslighting everybody since that it is Israel’s fault there is no Arab Palestine state despite holding Gaza, Samaria, and Judea for two decades. Those who call Samaria and Judea “West Bank” infer it is Jordanian. Instead of rehabilitating their refugees who mostly moved no further than Dublin to Wexford, they have conned UN taxpayers into paying them like a hereditary caste against all principles of liberalism and prudent public funding.
Again in the 50s Arab border raiding Israeli villages and transport with over 400 fatalities part caused the Suez/Sinai campaign. In 1967, another bout of Arab motor mouthing and Soviet cynicism skidded into the Suez ditch. Israel survived. Israel is in the West Bank legally having defeated artillery bombardments of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Why did Arab states at Khartoum reject Israel’s offer to return to the Green Line for a peace treaty?
Since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2006 it has needled Israel into four campaigns and ceasefires but this fifth has rebounded in spades.
