Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness:

Yes. Listening to the other people, my opinion definitely makes me appear to be the nasty one who recommends simply deletion and so on. This is, of course, not based at all on me not appreciating everything that carers and fathers and mothers do. I am a mother and a grandmother myself. I am just listening to what the ESRI said. I listened to the figures it gave and it seems that they provide a perfect illustration of the fact that the existing article has done no good at all for equality for women or families. That is the fact. If we are thinking of creating a new article about carers - and I believe that most of us agree we are talking about carers in general, not just bringing men into the original article along with women - we really have to look at the effect it can have given that the Constitution is not a policy document. I know it also sets out values, but it is a basic law. We would have to look and see. If one asks me to say something one gets a legal opinion. It would have to be envisaged whether, if there was a challenge in court as to whether the good things that were set out in the amendment were actually being done by the Government, the courts could grant what the Deputy has rightly described as a socioeconomic right. As the Deputy will know, the Irish courts have been remarkably reluctant, certainly in recent years and at least since Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, to grant socioeconomic rights. I am not totally against putting in something that would show the value of caring but I ask the Deputy please not to think that it will mean that every Government will leap into really doing something practical.