Tánaiste agrees information campaign needed prior to gender equality referendum
Olivia Kelleher
Tánaiste Micheal Martin said he agrees with the chief executive of the Electoral Commission, Art O’Leary, who maintains that a proper information campaign in advance of as many as three referendums on general equality will take up to 16 weeks.
Mr Martin described the matter as being “complex.”
“I would agree with the chief executive of the Electoral Commission.
"I have always been consistently of the view that we do need a proper preparation time in advance of any referendum.
"The issues here are complex and there are a number of issues that are being considered by Government at Cabinet Sub Committee level over the last while.
"The big challenge always in a Referendum is the balance between that which you put into the constitution in terms of a basic principle and the role of the Government and the Oireachtas of the day in terms of resources.
"Ultimately because our constitution is based on judicial interpretation in our democracy and the separation of powers we want decisions on policy to be ones that would ordinarily be taken by the Oireachtas and by the Government of the day. That is the balance that we have to get right here.”
Mr Martin said the referendum was not “just about the deletion of certain articles.”
“It is about issues pertaining to care and so on. So there are issues there that we need to get right. There is a lot of work that has been put into this.
"When one changes the constitution, it is a very fundamental piece of work. It has a lot of knock on impacts. It is not like drafting legislation or creating a new policy.”
Last March, the Government announced its plan to hold a referendum on gender equality in November.
The holding of the referendum was recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality and Special Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality.
The decision to hold one or more referendums on this issue is in line with the Programme for Government commitment to respond to each recommendation of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality.
