Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree 100% with everything my colleague, Senator Dolan, has said, and indeed others. There is a job of communication to be done here and I hope we learn the lessons from other scenarios within Government and get the communication of this message right. There are people in homes across the country who are caring for loved ones, including elderly loved ones and children with profound disabilities and I am not talking about people with disabilities who play a significant and very valued active role in society. I am talking about people such as the woman I met on Friday who was caring for two autistic non-verbal children who are still in nappies at nine years of age, and who, quite frankly, is saving this country an absolute fortune by caring for them at home. People like that do not feel valued and respected. There are many people, including Members of this House, who are have cared at home for elderly relatives and they know full well the difficulties and challenges, but also the great sense of fulfilment, achievement, love and caring, that comes from it.

However, this referendum is critical. I have fundamental issues with the Constitution in general because we have not reformed it. There is a whole raft of areas within the Constitution that really need to be reformed, looked at, and on which we need to have referendums, but that it is a discussion for another day. This is a critical referendum and the result will send a clear message to the thousands and thousands of people who are caring for loved ones within the home. I sincerely hope this legislation passes and that the people will have an opportunity to support this on 8 March.