Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak on the Bill. It and the Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023, Second Stage of which is also being taken today, are very much interconnected and reflect the changed and changing State and society in which we live. We have come a long way in the past 40 years in particular, and these referendums will be important markers on the next stage of our journey. They will be a chance for the people to have their say on the family, what and who constitute the family, the institution of marriage and its protection, and the administration and responsibility of care in the family and the home.

Family based on marriage has always been fundamental and sacrosanct in this State, but the rise in cohabitation, the number of people choosing to have and to rear children on their own and, indeed, the number of grandparents rearing their grandchildren alone present a broader idea and presentation of family well beyond the usual religious and traditional basis of marriage. We must have acknowledgement, recognition and protections for the way we live today in our families and, by extension, in society.

I thank the citizens' assembly for its work in this regard, as well as the plethora of NGOs that appeared before the committee and were so open in their views and generous with their time. That is real civil engagement at its best. At this time last year, we were finalising our report. It is good to get it to the point at which we find ourselves today. The proposals of the citizens' assembly gave us a chance to reflect on family in the 21st century. I am fully in favour of protecting marriage and the institution of marriage as something of real and deep value in society. On the matter of family, whether founded in marriage or durable relationships, the proposed wording requires clarification and strengthening. The word "durable" is strange and weak in this context. It is more suited to describing a battery than to complex and sensitive human relationships, never mind Bunreacht na hÉireann. It is far too nebulous. It is open to a multiplicity of interpretations and, therefore, has no place in the Constitution, where language should be precise. There is a shallowness in how it has been presented.

I will broaden my remarks to speak briefly on actual support for families that goes beyond a definition. I am talking about the basics of good government, which is to provide good public services, be they decent and affordable housing, access to affordable childcare, a school place for every child or a seat on the school bus for those who need it. There are children in north Kildare who do not have a school place. It is 2023 and some of the children in my constituency are receiving six hours of home tuition. It beggars belief. Local TDs have to try to help parents who do not have school places for their children for next year. Every family, be it through marriage or on the questionable basis of a durable relationship, needs these services. I would much prefer if we, as legislators, were waiting to discuss today how we can nail down and set in stone for all families access to all the public services to which I referred, and for that to be done on the basis of guaranteed rights, rather than luck or political favour.

For now, I am afraid the word "durable" is not durable constitutionally. It has an optics-driven shallowness to it that is unworthy of families or Bunreacht na hÉireann.

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