Mr. John Dunne:

I am completely opposed to a two-stage process. We have lived with this wording for 80 years and we can live with it for another one or two if it means we get it right. As somebody once said, it is about "events, dear boy". It would not be credible to do a repeal simpliciter and then sit down to talk about what we are going to put in. I agree that symbolism is not nothing, and this is the key message we are trying to get across. I was asked if the process could be dealt with quickly but I am less exercised by timing than I am about getting it right. The Constitution is the way to approach it. I have heard other people say that, while it can be done, it is ambitious. My experience is that these things take a bit longer when one is trying to bring people along and build a consensus. Rather than fixing a timeframe and finding that one is running out of time, it should be allowed to run.

Other research on unpaid work, namely, the health survey, was carried out by the CSO in 2016. That rather blew our socks off. It was a sample study of activity but it was very detailed. It found that 355,000 people in Ireland were providing a minimum of 40 hours per week of unpaid care. That was the first such study and we are looking forward to the second. It takes a good sample so it should be reasonably reliable, though we would want to see a trend before banking on it.