A referendum to remove the reference to the family being founded on marriage might be misunderstood [1] as an attempt to banish marriage and family from the constitution, the Taoiseach has warned.
Leo Varadkar said only the link between the two needs to be severed.
“I have a fear that people will misinterpret us as trying to delete the family or to delete marriage when actually the Constitution protects marriage and the family, but it’s the linking of the two that is something that we think should change,” he said.
Mr Varadkar said he was conscious that referendums can “go wrong” and the Government must ensure the wording of any question posed in a referendum was right.
“We have had some difficulty agreeing on the wording,” Mr Varadkar said, adding the referendum would focus on two areas — the reference to women in the home and the linking of marriage and the family in the Constitution.
“There’s the wording in the Constitution that says the family is founded on marriage and marriage alone. I think we all agree that in the modern world, there are lots of families that are not married families: families led by grandparents; families led by couples that aren’t married; one-parent families.
“But we need to make sure that we get that wording right and people don’t misinterpret it.”