Ireland will be taking a “step backwards” this week if it votes against two changes to the constitution that are designed to remove “old-fashioned” language about women and formally recognise families beyond those involving marriage, the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has said.
In a double referendum on Friday, the Irish public will be asked to support the deletion of two clauses in the 1937 constitution, including the “women in the home” provision, and the enshrining of two proposed amendments.
While the “double yes” vote is in the lead, polls predict a low turnout and indicate that 35% of voters are still undecided. Speaking in Bucharest on Wednesday, Varadkar said the referendum amounted to “a value statement about what we stand for as a society”.
“I think a no vote would be a setback for the country, quite frankly,” he said. “It would say to a lot of people, hundreds of thousands of people and children, that they’re not in a family as far as our constitution is concerned. And that would be a step backwards, I think.
“It would also mean in relation to care that the very old-fashioned language about women in the home and mothers’ duties in the home would be maintained.”
The taoiseach was speaking on the sidelines of the congress of the European People’s party grouping of conservative and centre-right parties in the European parliament.
The two referendums were billed by Varadkar as a means of removing gender inequality from the state’s constitution.
“By voting yes in the family referendum, we’re saying that all families are equal, regardless of the marital status of parents,” he told reporters.
The amendment on care proposes deleting an article that reads: “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 proposed amendment would recognise that all sorts of people, whether parents, adult children, minors, siblings or other family members, provide care. It reads: “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.”
The other vote, known as the family amendment, will propose expanding the definition of a family beyond marriage to include those in “durable relationships”.
