Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chair and wish Senators a good afternoon. I am pleased to be here to bring two Bills to the House, which aim to amend our Constitution to reflect the values of a more inclusive Ireland. Our Constitution is the fundamental law of Ireland. It should be a reflection of who we are and the values we hold dear, but right now the text of our Constitution does not reflect our values. It excludes thousands of people from the protection of being named as part of the constitutional family, it describes a very singular place for women within Irish society and it makes no allowances for care being a role for both women and men.

Any change to the Constitution is significant and meaningful. The amendments being proposed in these two Bills build on previous reforms to our Constitution, namely, children’s rights, marriage equality, and the repeal of the eighth amendment. They reflect the continuation of our journey towards a more compassionate, inclusive and equal society. There are a great many people in Ireland today for whom these changes will mean a lot. It will make a difference for people like Breda Murray. Breda is a single mother and a grandmother whose two eldest children were born in an unmarried relationship and two younger children were born in a marriage that has now ended. She said "there is absolutely no difference in how I love them and care for them, and no difference for them in how they love me as their mother". Despite this our Constitution currently makes a distinction between those children. As Breda said: "Ireland must change this archaic and discriminatory clause so that all children can receive the same rights and protections as each other whether their parents are married or not."The first Bill we are discussing today is the Thirty-Ninth Amendment of the Constitution (The Family) Bill, to which I will speak now. The Constitution was written at a time when society only recognised and respected one kind of family, the family based on marriage. Non-marital families were made to feel like they were not a full part of our society. Those who fell outside the narrow ideal of the marital family were, and are to this day, denied constitutional recognition as a family. Single mothers and their children, in particular, were stigmatised and marginalised. This Bill aims to address that inequality by amending Article 41 of the Constitution to provide for a wider concept of family. The proposed amendment reaffirms the family as the fundamental unit of society but crucially, it does this in a way that recognises families beyond those based on marriage, including one-parent families and couples who choose not to marry and their children.

The approach taken by the Government with this Bill is twofold. First, the amendment would formally de-link marriage and family within Article 41.3.1° by amending the wording from "The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack" to "The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage and to protect it against attack". This is important. It is this current wording which has been read by the courts as limiting the constitutionally protected family to the marital family. The special protection for marriage is not being removed and it is really important that we make that point. Second, the Government is proposing to amend Article 41.1.1° to read: "The State recognises the Family, whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships, as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law." This proposed amendment to this specific section is a deliberate choice with deliberate intent. It is a positive and upfront affirmation that the concept of family in Article 41 is no longer limited to the marital family and also encompasses other durable, committed relationships such as one-parent families and cohabiting couples and their children.

There has been much focus during the debate on this Bill in Dáil Éireann and in media coverage of the proposals on the inclusion of the word "durable" within the proposed amendment. To be clear, the term "durable relationships" is intended to encompass relationships of strength, stability and commitment such that they are consistent with that existing description of a family in Article 41, one that is the fundamental unit group of society and a moral institution. This proposed wording would expand the concept of family to cohabitants, with or without children, and to one-parent families.

I understand there are some concerns about whether the term "durable relationships" covers parent-child relationships. I can confirm that this is unequivocally the intention of this proposal and this is very strongly supported by the fact that the term "the Family" which we are discussing in Article 41 also appears in Article 42.1 and in that context, very clearly encompasses parent-child relationships. The approach seeks to positively recognise families beyond the marital family. It seeks to build, in a consistent way, on the existing guardrails that exist within Article 41 such as the terms "necessary basis of social order" and "indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State". These are powerful concepts that hold weight and the inclusion of the new term of "durable relationships" is consistent with these existing concepts.

The approach also aims to recognise the more inclusive concept of family in a positive, visible and upfront manner within Article 41 rather than solely in Article 41.3.1°, which is centred on marriage. In this context, it is important to note that the proposed amendments to Article 41.3.1° do not remove the special, unique status of marriage within the Constitution. The proposal removes the words "on which the family is founded" from Article 41.3.1°. However, the State's pledge within the Constitution "to guard with special care the institution of Marriage" and to "protect it against attack" will remain in place. Marriage is an important institution that is highly valued. It has also become a more inclusive institution in this country with the passing of the referendum on marriage for same-sex couples in 2015.This amendment will not take away from that nor will it make marriage any less important. The proposed amendments aim to update our Constitution so it reflects and recognises families in an inclusive way. In doing so, they respond to the recommendations of the citizens' assembly and the Oireachtas joint committee, whose crucial work in helping us to get to this point I acknowledge. I also acknowledge the many Members of this House who were deeply involved in that process.

For the purpose of the Irish census, a family is defined as "a couple with or without children, or a one-parent unit with one or more children." By this definition, there were more than 1.3 million families in the Irish State on census night 2022. Of those, almost one in five was headed by one parent. The proposals contained in this Bill are not merely symbolic. They will ensure that constitutional protections for the family will extend to those families, which number in the hundreds of thousands. It will give to those families the right to manage decisions within their own families and give them the protections which currently apply only to the marital family.

There is something deeply meaningful about this proposal that transcends those practical legal effects. If we look at how single mothers and their children were treated in the past, how they were often treated as lesser and how they were often pushed into the shadows in Irish society, we will see that this happened against the backdrop of a Constitution that never recognised them as a family, that does not recognise them as a family today, that does not see their relationships as a fundamental unit of society and that does not recognise them as indispensable to the welfare of our State and our nation. The recognition that families beyond the marital family exist is now reflected throughout statute, including in legislation like the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. In this way, our society and even our statute, the Bills and Acts we pass, have moved ahead of our Constitution as regards the reality of the modern family. However, until our Constitution recognises those families founded on committed relationships other than marriage, we cannot say that, as a State and as a society, we have fully faced this aspect of our past and rejected the discrimination these families faced.

Since publishing this Bill, I have been approached by people and reminded yet again of how hurtful it is that they and their children are still not recognised in our Constitution, the founding document of our State. This referendum is our opportunity to put things right. Now is the time to finally recognise in our Constitution those families and all families that are founded on committed relationships other than marriage. It will allow us, as a society, to reject the discrimination these families faced in the past and to say to them that they are just as fundamental to our society as any other family. I commend this Bill to the House.

If I may seek the Acting Chairperson's indulgence for 30 seconds, I know this House held a very special event earlier this afternoon to recognise the retirement of Senator Norris. I will take this opportunity to recognise him as well. It is not often in your lifetime that you get to meet or work with a person who has had an absolutely tangible impact on the rights you enjoy as a person. As someone who is gay, I enjoy rights and freedoms in this country solely on the basis of Senator Norris's bravery in taking a case first in the Irish courts and later at the European Court of Human Rights. I recognise and thank the Senator today. He will leave a great gap in this House and in Irish society. I and many others are very grateful for his contribution over many decades.