Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps Ms Canning, Ms Roche or Ms O'Reilly will want to comment on this. I will set out what my concern about an amendment would be. I ask the witnesses to consider what would happen if we changed the provision significantly and it was then left to the courts to interpret some new article. When courts interpret rights under the Constitution, they do so on the basis of the people who take cases before them. I gave the example last week of an 18 year old who collects his sister after school at 2.30 p.m. and minds her until the parents come home at 6.30 p.m. What I would not like to see is some vague right put in, that individual going before the court and a judge telling him he comes within the definition of a carer in the home and is entitled to be financially compensated and rewarded by the State. Then the State would just deal with him and it would affect the whole social welfare policy and budget that the State affords to carers in general. That is my fear about it, and I do not think it is an irrational fear if we go down the line of creating an absolutely new right. I do not know whether Ms Canning, Ms Roche or Ms O'Reilly wish to comment. I think they advocated that there be a really strong right within the Constitution to-----