Vote shouldn’t be decided by a simple majority of one
AFTER the Brexit referendum, many UK politicians stated that the matter should have been decided by a supermajority of at least 60% of the electorate.
I suggest that a referendum should be considered passed only when there is a minimum 80% turnout and at least 60% in favour. In referendums that are likely to affect the entire population for the rest of their lives, the result should not be decided by a simple majority of as little as one vote.
It is therefore vital that the
Irish electorate come out in strength on Friday, March 8.
Despite the misleading claims that the Constitution confines women to the home, nothing could be further from the truth. Ask any mother and she will confirm that the economic burden of paying a mortgage gives her no other option but to go out to work, simply because one salary is no longer enough.
If I had been asked to rewrite Article 41.2.2 I would have suggested: ‘The State shall, therefore, ensure that mothers, or any other person fulfilling the role of a carer, shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home...’
That would place the onus on the State to make good any financial loss incurred by carers, regardless of gender.
Finally, I would point out that durable relationships do not exist, and that also applies to marriage, as there are in the region of 5,000 divorces a year.
Patrick Murray, Dublin 14.
US could end killing
WHY are the Pope and the rest of the clergy not condemning Israel for the murders of 30,000 Palestinians,
most of them children who have nothing to do with Hamas, with 7,000 prisoners taken and another 150 murdered on the streets this week?
US president Joe Biden could stop the slaughter tomorrow by not supplying weapons to Israel and now they are using phosphorus chemicals against Hezbollah. We all thought we had moved on from the Vietnam war when America used it against the Viet Cong with terrible consequences.
Has America not learned from these futile wars? People want to live in peace again. This is the 21st century.
Noel Harrington, Kinsale, Co. Cork.