Yes vote won’t weaken families, says Paschal
MINISTER for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has dismissed claims by Catholic bishops that the proposed changes to the Constitution will weaken the incentive for young people to marry.
Ireland’s Catholic bishops urged the public to vote No in the referendums next month.
The two votes will be held on March 8 – International Women’s Day – proposing to change the Irish constitution. One, the family amendment, proposes amending Article 41 of the constitution to extend the meaning of family beyond one defined by marriage and include those based on ‘durable’ relationships.
In statements read out during Masses last weekend, the Church said that the changes on family and care would diminish the relationship between marriage and family. The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference said while ‘marriage’ is a recognised public and legal commitment, the term ‘durable relationship’ is ‘shrouded in uncertainty and is open to wide interpretation’.
‘The proposed family amendment to the Constitution diminishes the unique importance of the relationship between marriage and family in the eyes of society and State, and is likely to lead to a weakening of the incentive for young people to marry,’ they said in a statement.
However, Mr Donohoe said the proposed wording ‘strengthens and protects’ relationships that are important to society.
‘I believe far from weakening anything within our country, I believe it has strengthened it,’ Mr Donohoe said. He added that current wording of the Constitution does not reflect the realities many children in the country are born in to. ‘The changes that we are asking the country to consider with regard to our Constitution, actually, for me strengthen and protect the relationships that are so important within our society and our country.
‘Due to the way in which our Constitution is currently drafted, so many young girls and boys now who are born into family units that are not recognised by our Constitution,’ he said.
‘It’s a matter of huge importance that we can update our Constitution so that its language and values reflect the diversity of modern Ireland,’ he said.
There are currently 150,000 cohabiting couples, and 75,000 cohabiting couples with children.
Almost 20% of families are oneparent families, with 80% of those one-parent families headed by women. Some 40% of births are outside of marriage while 40% of families are non-marital.
The second proposed change, the care amendment, proposes deleting Article 41.2.1 and 41.2.2, which make reference to a woman’s roles and duties in the home, and replace it with a new article 42B – that acknowledges family carers. The bishops argue this will have the effect of abolishing all reference to motherhood in the Constitution and leave unacknowledged ‘the particular and incalculable societal contribution mothers in the home have made and continue to make in Ireland’.
‘The role of mothers should continue to be cherished in our Constitution,’ the bishops said. The bishops said family is acknowledged as where stability, care, love and truth can best be taught and learned by children. We recognise, of course, that there are families in all our communities which are not founded on marriage.
‘They form part of the reality of family life, which Pope Francis described as ‘a challenging mosaic made up of many different realities, with all their joys, hopes and problems,’ they said.
The bishops outlined the need to reinforce a commitment to the sacrament of marriage.
‘We believe, however, that the commitment of marriage contributes to the common good in a unique way, by bringing stability to the family and to society, and that it consequently deserves the protection of the State, which is currently guaranteed in the Constitution of Ireland,’ they said.
They added that the Constitution correctly qualifies the family as a ‘moral institution’ that enjoys inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.
‘It strengthens relationships’