Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 19 September 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

General Scheme of the Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution (Role of Women) Bill: Discussion

9:00 am

Photo of Colm BrophyColm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not favour amending the Constitution at all. I have supported changing the Constitution on a number of occasions but my point, and that of the Minister, is that we have an opportunity to do a straight deletion. We could hold a referendum on it and there is overwhelming support for it. I do not necessarily oppose anything else I have heard but I believe the other proposals have not been worked through. Any subsequent insertion into the Constitution should involve a process of discussion, as the NWCI said.

On Mr. Conaty's point, my worry is that if in the course of a campaign a proposal does not go far enough or does not address the issues he so clearly stated should be addressed in terms of recognition, one could get caught up. In light of the fact that we have reached a point in this country where we are pretty much holding a referendum every year, if not more often, there would not be a problem carrying out a stand-alone, straightforward deletion and then re-examining how the issue of carers might be addressed within the Constitution. It is the linkage I have the problem with, not either topic.

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