Gender Equality Committee recommends Referendum on ‘woman in the home' section of Constitution should be held in 2023

The remit of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality is to consider the 45 recommendations contained in the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality, together with the response of the Government to each such recommendation, having regard to the open letter to the Oireachtas contained in that report.

The remit of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality is to consider the 45 recommendations contained in the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality, together with the response of the Government to each such recommendation, having regard to the open letter to the Oireachtas contained in that report. 

The Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality has previously recommended that Article 41.2 of the Constitution should be deleted and replaced with language that is not gender specific and obliges the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and wider community; along with two other recommendations on constitutional change to refer explicitly to ‘gender equality’ in the equality guarantee, and to make the definition of family more inclusive in Article 41. 

The Oireachtas Committee report published today now makes the following recommendations: 

• A constitutional referendum should be held in 2023 to give effect to the Citizens’ Assembly recommendations on constitutional change. 

 • The Government should proceed to do the necessary preparatory work and make a decision upon the wording for a constitutional referendum to be put to the people in 2023 to amend Article 40.1 and Article 41.  

• Various options for appropriate wordings are suggested within the body of the report.  Building on the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations, prior to publication of today’s Interim Report, the Committee has engaged both in private and public with academics, government ministers and officials, civil society organisations and those with lived experiences, to discuss and develop an appropriate form of wording to replace the current Article 41; and to establish how the three recommendations of the Assembly on constitutional change might best be implemented.

 Launching the report, Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Ivana Bacik said:  “At the outset it was agreed by the Committee to prioritise consideration of recommendations 1 to 3 on the Constitution, which relate to Articles 40.1 and 41 of the Constitution.”  

“It has long been agreed that the way in which women and mothers are referred to in Article 41 is based on outdated gender stereotypes and should have no place in a constitutional text. In addition, the definition of family in the same Article has long been criticised for being insufficiently inclusive of diverse family forms in contemporary Ireland. The Committee therefore recommends that a constitutional referendum be held in 2023 to give effect to the Citizens’ Assembly recommendations on constitutional change.”

 “Several alternative options for wording are set out in the report. The Committee has sought the response of the Government on the proposals put forward, and now seeks the views of interested stakeholders, citizens, and members of the public on these options. We will be publishing a Final Report at the conclusion of our term as a Committee and will return then to the question of constitutional change.” 

“Through this process and our ongoing work, we look forward to contributing to the strengthening of gender equality norms and policies generally.”  

Deputy Bacik thanked the members of the Citizens’ Assembly for their report: “Their hard work and engagement in this deliberative democracy process has produced a comprehensive set of recommendations, and it is the aim and intention of this Committee to focus on their implementation.” 

ENDS 

Notes to Editor  

Read the Committee’s report here.

The Committee’s work on the full set of recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly is ongoing and hearings will continue through Autumn 2022 to enable consideration of all 45 recommendations under a number of different headings.  

The Committee is due to publish its final report on all recommendations in December 2022. This interim report sets out the substantive issues discussed at the Committee’s hearings on the topic, and presents various options for constitutional text which could form the basis of amendments to give effect to the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly.