Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is why we are sitting here on Tuesday and that is why this commission has demanded that it be in its hands within 48 hours or 24 hours. In any case, I have made my protest. I could have called more votes on the Order of Business, and all the rest of it, to make the same point but that would have chewed up the time that is available.

Second, the amendment that we are considering has two functions. First, it amends Article 41.2, and, second, it introduces an entirely new article, Article 42B. Just as Article 41 has “An Teaghlach” or “The Family” as its heading and Article 42A has “Children” as its heading, we are now inserting not merely Article 42A but a heading into our Constitution, “Care”. The provisions of the Constitution that deal with care will be the provisions set out in Article 42B. It is in that context that I want to echo everything that Senator Clonan has said. As a mature democracy, we are providing wording to deal with the whole question of care in a new Article 42B in language which is patronising and demeaning for people who have disabilities and need care, and we have heard that phrase used in respect of the existing Article 41.2. This is not a family provision because, as I said, it is taken out of the “The Family” chapter of the Constitution and put into the “Care” chapter of the Constitution. It states: "The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision." It is effectively saying that families have a particular duty because of the bonds they have between them; we do not use the term “duty” as that is unfashionable now but they give support by reason of the bonds that exist among them. Of course, the bonds that do exist among the members of a family are ones of duty. That is what it is; it is duty. It is a different term. They are saying that care is to be given by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them. How can it be that we now reform our Constitution to provide a new chapter called “Care” and say that it is all to do with what family members give to each other by virtue of the bonds that exist between them?