‘Help mothers who want to stay at home’, says Fianna Fail Senator

13th March 2024

Fianna Fáil Senator Lisa Chambers has called on the Government to do more to help mothers who want to stay at home.

She was speaking after the resounding defeat of the referendum to remove the protection offered to mothers to not be forced by economic necessity to work outside the home. She had supported a Yes vote in the campaign.

A recent Amarach Research opinion poll commissioned by The Iona Institute showed that 69pc of mothers with children under the age of 18 would prefer to stay at home with their children rather than go out to work if they could afford it.

Ms Chambers said that she could never have supported the word mother being taken out of the Constitution.

“It didn’t sit right with me, my gut told me that it wasn’t the right move.”

Ms Chambers described a Yes vote in the Care referendum as meaning taking a bit out and adding in a new section, and she said that while the 1937 wording might be a bit old fashioned, “there’s something in that”.

She said that Ireland needed to do more to allow people to stay at home if they want to. “I don’t think it’s a realistic option for lots of parents, particularly Mums, to stay at home if they want to, and that’s something we need to work on.”