Oireachtas committee wants special protection for marriage removed

15th July 2022

A referendum on the constitutional clause protecting mothers from being forced to work outside the home should be held next year, a new Oireachtas report has recommended. Marriage should also have its special constitutional protection removed.

It follows a recommendation of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality. The Assembly believes all families should be treated equally and sees no reason to give marriage special status despite evidence showing that children tend to fare best when raised by a married mother and father.

In its interim report, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality recommended that the Government proceed with “necessary preparatory work” and that a decision should be made on the wording for a referendum to be put to the public in 2023. It proposed a number of “appropriate wordings” that could be used.

According to the Citizens’ Assembly, Article 40.1 of the Constitution should be amended to refer explicitly to ‘gender equality’ and ‘non-discrimination’, while Article 41 should be amended to protect family life, with the protection afforded not limited to the marital family, which was changed in 2015 to include same-sex couples.

Article 41.2 should be “deleted and replaced with language that is not gender specific” and which “obliges the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and wider community”, the assembly said.