O’Gorman calls on progressives to back referendums

Minister Roderic O’Gorman has called on organisations who call themselves “progressive” to explain why they are not campaigning for a “Yes” vote in the upcoming referendum on removing language from the Constitution surrounding a woman’s place being in the home.

The referendums, announced before Christmas, will see voters go to the polls on March 8 and be asked if they want to remove Article 41.2 from the Consitution, and will also be asked if they want to amend Article 41.1.1, which would define family as “whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships.”

Speaking to the Irish Times, the Dublin West TD and Minister for Integration said “any organisation that sees itself as progressive and as wanting to advance progressive change would have to explain why they do not support the plans.”

Should the referendum fail to pass, O’Gorman stated that a status quo would remain in place regarding how women are treated in Ireland.

“It (the referendum failing to pass) would mean millions of women in our country, their duties are in the home, or indeed that tens of thousands of families aren’t actually recognised”.

“Nobody loses from either of these changes. And a significant number of people, I think, have the opportunity to gain from them,” he said.

There has been concern that the proposed wording of the legislation does not go far enough.

Dr. Laura Cahillane, a constitutional law expert said “I welcome that the proposed wording removes the outdated language but I am very disappointed and frustrated that it is being replaced by a purely symbolic provision, a cosmetic change.”

A coalition of six civil society organisations including the National Women’s Council, Family Carers Ireland, One Family, Treoir, Independent Living Movement Ireland, and SIPTU?said they “cautiously” welcomed the referendums, but criticised the fact that the wording the Irish people will vote on is significantly different to that recommended by the Citizen’s Assembly in 2021.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik told The Journal in late December that she was unsure if her party could support the referendums, saying the wording is “narrowly defined” and “weak,” while Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said the Government touting the fact the referendums are being held on International Women’s Day is “patronising.”

O’Gorman dismissed the criticisms, saying “if the State hadn’t wanted to do something meaningful, we could have done what was proposed a couple of years ago, delete the provision, and nothing more; we didn’t do that. I think it’s very clear that there’s an obligation there that is meaningful.”

Announcing the referendum before Christmas alongside An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Education Norma Foley, O’Gorman said “ after decades of deliberation, we are finally offering the people the opportunity to remove the archaic and sexist reference to women in the home, which has contributed nothing to the good of women’s lives in this country other than to limit their choices.”

“A woman’s place is wherever she wants to be, in the workplace, in education, or in the home”

The referendum was initially meant to be held in late 2023, possibly around November, but the referendum date was pushed to March 8th to give the public as much information as possible about the proposed changes as well as allowing Government to carry out the traditional length of a referendum campaign of 6 weeks.

O’Gorman stated in a separate interview with the Irish Examiner that there is concern the referendum campaign could be hijacked by bad faith actors.

O’Gorman told the newspaper there would be attempts to bring “extraneous issues” into the referendum, such as transgender rights, and the referendum campaign itself spilling over into American-style culture wars. I think it’s the job of Government and the job of everyone in civil society campaigning for a Yes vote to push back against that, to talk about what this referendum is about, and talk about how this is the opportunity to do something that people have been talking about doing for years.”

“I think it’s likely these issues will be raised, I think we’ve already seen some people try and link the proposed change in the Constitution to issues to do with trans rights. There’s absolutely no link. I will be saying that, Government will be saying that, the organisations who campaign for this will be saying that.”