The Electoral Commission has urged farming students to vote in the March 8 referendums affecting family and care.
Chair of the commission, Ms. Justice Marie Baker attended the Agricultural Training College in Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan to explain the proposed changes up for vote.
The commission is an independent body preparing research programmes and conducting research on electoral policy and procedure.
Baker said that it is important everyone able to vote does, as “your vote is your voice”.
Referendums explained
Baker explained that the first proposed change being voted on affects family.
This is to change or keep the recognition for the institution of the family under the constitution.
If you vote ‘yes’ for change, you would be voting for the constitutional protection of the family to continue to be given to both the family based on marriage, but also the family founded on “other durable relationships”.
The second proposed change is for a phrase in the constitution, whereby the state recognises that by her life in the home, a woman gives to the state, a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.
The constitution recognises that the work a woman does in the home is important for the common good.
The constitution also states that the state will “endeavour” to ensure that mothers won’t be required to go out to work to the “neglect” of their duties in the home.
The proposal in this referendum is to entirely delete that statement and replace it with a “gender neutral provision”.
If voting ‘yes’, this would provide a change to include that the care provided by members of a family to one another gives society a support at which the common good cannot be achieved.
The state will strive to support the provision of that care instead.
What this means
If the constitution did change, Baker explained that there would be no automatic changes for land and property ownership between a couple.
However, she added that over time, if there was a change, this would mean the oireachtas would also have to pass some legislation to give a different form of recognition to rights between people in a “durable relationship” for ownership.
Baker said that people should use reliable and impartial sources to find out information on the referendum.
She said that there is a perception that the constitution states the woman’s place is in the home, which is untrue.
“There’s also a perception that the courts are the body that will interpret this, should they be passed. Actually no, legislation is the next thing to happen,” Baker said.
“It’s only if somebody can say that they were discriminated against and they were wrongly left out of a piece of legislation that the court would come in as a kind of safety net.
“Ultimately the court decides what it means, but the legislature must puts meat on it,” Baker added.