Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I intend to be more brief than my colleague and I agree with everything that he said. I want to commend the Minister of State for a very comprehensive speech which outlined exactly where we are. It troubles me that some of these Islamic countries are using our constitutional provision to defend their position. I saw a programme on BBC two years ago which convinced me that we needed to do something about this provision in the Constitution because Ireland was referenced on numerous occasions as part of a very disturbing report.

This should have happened a long time ago. It is outdated, is not required and is not reflective of us. Many elements of our Constitution could be changed. The woman's place in the home is one on which I sincerely hope we have a referendum in 2019. I was not convinced that pre-legislative scrutiny was required for it, but the National Women's Council of Ireland seemed to think differently. It took place at the justice committee yesterday, and that is democracy. Let us hope that something positive comes out of the pre-legislative scrutiny because it certainly has delayed that referendum now until at least next May. That referendum should have happened alongside the blasphemy referendum in order to help to bring our Constitution into line with society as it is today.

This referendum will take place. I want to commend our colleagues across the House for their co-operation in putting this through as quickly as possible. That is reflective of what happens in this Chamber most of the time. There is collaboration and co-operation for the good of society, and that is why we are here. Obviously, the presidential election is going to dominate proceedings in the run-up to 26 October but I encourage the people to give deep consideration to this because it is very important that this proposal receives major endorsement to remove this from the Constitution.