Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Does the Government intend during its lifetime, however brief or long that may be, to hold any referenda? There is a great sense that this, like a lot of other stuff, has been long-fingered. There will not be another consultative process in respect of the various decisions of the Constitutional Convention. We should salute its members. They completed their work but it is clear that their work just lies there. With regard to the proposal to reduce the voting age, does the Taoiseach have any intention of affording to younger people the opportunity to vote subject to the referendum? Does he have wording for that proposal?

Second, there was also a proposal relating to the issue of blasphemy and the Constitution. A number of people have suggested that this would give us an opportunity as a society to examine issues around incitement to hatred. These are technical issues. We are also aware of the article in respect of what was then perceived in the 1930s to the role of women in Irish society.

The Constitution proclaimed that a woman's role was particularly related to being in the home. Almost everybody here would agree that these are three issues over and beyond what Deputy Martin raised that require to be addressed. We are witnessing at the moment, not least as a result of the election in America last week, very profound changes, some of which constitute potentially enormous threats to democracy. We have seen passions running wild in the American election in a way we probably have not seen since the 1930s in Europe. Our Constitution comes out of the 1930s and its social values reflect some of the values of that era. In Ireland, because we had a strong constitutional democracy, we did not fall prey in the way other societies did. It is important, given what has been happening around the world in recent times, in particular the re-emergence in politics of the strong-man syndrome. We have strong men in many different parts of the world, from the Philippines to Russia and various other areas. We have somebody now coming into the presidency of the United States who, certainly during the election, cast himself as an archetypal strong man. Is now not the time for us in Ireland, as we have done on previous occasions, to have a genuine look at the Constitution, address the question of younger people having access to voting to encourage their involvement in democracy and address the issue of how women are addressed in the Constitution and modernise it?

The Constitutional Convention has a number of very valuable suggestions on that which recognised that both genders have at different times in their lives, if not for all their lives, and under different circumstances had caring roles. It also address the issues of differences in society to approaches to people of different genders, different sexual orientations, different religions and people of different colours and origins under the general issue of incitement to hatred rather than debate. During the recent election in the United States, we heard a great deal of that kind of hateful language. We have seen a lot of it on Twitter as well. Many people have been victims of that in a very nasty way. This is an opportunity to address some of the issues that are outstanding in Irish society. Is the Taoiseach's Government prepared to address any of this or, as a result of the lack of stability and agreement in Government, has he just decided to take a pass on it for the remainder of the life of the Government?

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