Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

Earlier, I was asked whether I was opposed to everything, and I made the point that I am opposed to quite a lot of what the Government does. If I were not, I would be part of it. It is our job as Opposition Deputies. I was asked whether there was anything on which I would compliment the Government. It was a real struggle, and the only one I could come up with was the legislation we are discussing. In many ways, it was not necessarily delivered by the Government any more than this side of the House. The result in the marriage equality referendum was a resounding vote by the people outside the Chamber, the real people who make up Ireland in the present decade. It was incredibly enlightening for many people across the generations and I am glad the Government held the referendum and hope it learned from it that the people can be trusted.

Probably the most significant lesson that can be learned from it is that these issues which in some ways could be deemed to be private matters or moral issues between citizens have no place in a country's constitution. While I will make some points about why we need to change the Constitution regarding women's rights and abortion, the debate we should be having is on the type of Constitution we want in the modern age. A secular Constitution for an open, tolerant society and a redrafting of everything would be far preferable to tinkering around the edges and going through every single article that needs to be updated and modernised by a huge degree. We should take much confidence from the fact that on a world stage we were the fourth country to introduce such a measure by a popular vote. When one couples it with the trans legislation which the Government passed, which went beyond what it had originally proposed, which was very good, it should be taken as a signal for how business could be done in the House. While it was not perfect, it moved on a lot and beyond what many other countries which would be deemed to be progressive have.

For a country such as Ireland which came from a religious dominated ethos, it is very enlightening and would have inspired many people. It is not false to say that people around the world are looking at Ireland and thinking that some very interesting things are going on here. We need to package it and bring it into debates on other issues and agendas. I would like to see a completely grassroots discussion on the type of Constitution we want. Issues of private, personal morality have no place in a constitution, no more than private health matters. They are irrelevant. If people want to make a moral judgment, if people believe in a certain religious ethos, I will fight for their rights to practise their religion, however, it should not be in a constitution and, as an atheist, I believe it should not be in our schools and hospitals but should be a private, personal matter. We have a long way to go to reach this situation.

I agree with the points that the idea of being accepted has been a major plus for gay, bisexual and trans people. The personal stories were very important in the debate and they showed Irish life in all its multifaceted ways. The idea that we have a nuclear family of one mammy, one daddy and 2.whatever kids has long been in the past, and a reflection of real lives and differences in sexuality was very welcome. It is carrying on into the debate on abortion rights with, again, real women, real mothers, grandmothers and daughters telling their stories about the circumstances that led them to choose an abortion. We need to reflect all of it, and if people have a religious ideology we should respect it. Nobody will force them to have an abortion or marry a gay person, and they should not stop other people from doing it.

There must be a catch-up in the legislation after the marriage equality vote. Regarding section 37, while it is true that we have moved on, we have a long way to go. The moves in our education system regarding patronage of schools are not what we should be doing. We are replacing one patron with another and allowing a system of discrimination and segregation to continue. It is not advisable. All children of all religious persuasion and none should be educated together in schools near the areas in which they live and any other religious or moral teaching should be done privately. I agree that regarding full rights for teachers and nurses, section 37 must be examined beyond what the Government and the Labour Party Bill proposes, given that it would still allow discrimination against atheist teachers in our peculiar education system which is 100% State funded but 100% privately run.

We should seize the feel-good factor the marriage equality referendum delivered. There will be an economic kick from it. Ireland is a location for gay tourism, and I hope the gay couples who I hope come here in their thousands do not find the experience different from that. I am very glad they see Ireland as a gay-friendly destination. We can seize the feel-good factor in terms of women’s rights. I note the Minister’s comments yesterday published in some of the newspapers about the idea of abortion not being part of the Constitution and I welcome them.

For women in this country, the idea that a private, personal health matter relating to our bodies and choices being put in the Constitution is reprehensible. It has no place in a modern Ireland. To compound the problem, our Constitution says women have a legal right to an abortion and a legal and constitutional right to abortion information, but no right to access that medical treatment at home. Some people are very clear and happy and find the decision to have an abortion easy while for others the circumstances are not easy, for example in cases of rape, horrendous cases of fatal foetal abnormalities and so on.

As the UN and European bodies have said, our failure to recognise people's right to access this medical treatment here means that the most vulnerable women - migrant women, poor women and sick women - are the only people who cannot access their constitutional right to an abortion anywhere else.

The marriage equality referendum showed us that the idea that there is a conservative majority - a marauding band of people who are silently waiting in the wings to jump on any measure of progress or social change - is just not true. In fact, those people have had a disproportionate influence on social policy. Time and again, studies and surveys have shown that even those who feel that abortion is a moral issue or a personal choice are happy to leave such choices to the people who have to make them. They do not want to preclude such people from making certain choices. I think that is a really healthy development. We can grow on the basis of what was achieved in the marriage equality campaign.

These issues would have been sorted out long ago if they had been left to the Irish people, who are very tolerant and practical. We know that life is not black and white. We are not all the same. We do not all have the same life experiences. We want society to respect everybody. We know it would be brilliant to have a society in which people have children when they are ready, when they have the necessary supports and when they are able to raise them with dignity and respect, etc. Would that not be a great Ireland? It is embarrassing that in the past, people who had crisis pregnancies were hidden behind the walls of Magdalen laundries or confined to mother and baby homes. Years later, we had to apologise for the damage we did to them. Now we tell people in such circumstances that we know they have a problem and advise them to get on a Ryanair plane or to purchase illegally a packet of pills on the Internet. We have been telling them that we do not want to know them. I think that is changing now. The marriage equality referendum showed that people do want to know these people. The women in question want to tell their stories. That has been a real follow-on from the marriage equality referendum.

I acknowledge that the Government gave citizens an opportunity to have a say on what way they want Ireland to be. I am delighted about that. I appreciate it. I am begging and hoping that the Government, or the Government that follows next time, will give the people the right to make the same decision in terms of women's rights. I do not think the people would disappoint us in such circumstances. I think it would be a very good thing for Ireland. To be honest, it cannot come quick enough. These issues of old morality have no part in our Constitution. There are many different shapes and sizes. All are welcome, all are different and all are equal.

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