Mid-west Humanists – An Irish Atheist Community

The Dáil and Senate on 23 January 2024 both passed the 39th Amendment to the Constitution (The Family) Bill
and the 40th Amendment to the Constitution (Care) Bill.
Voting day in the Referenda will be Friday 8 March 2024.

To help people to decide how they will vote, the Mid-West Humanists will hold an Open Meeting on Tuesday 20 February 2024. We are also trying to help by showing the details of the changes on which people can vote.

The changes, about which the people can vote, in the Referenda, are fixed now. Each person can vote Yes to those changes, or No. But you cannot vote Yes to what you would like, unless the changes in those Bills are identical to what you want.

The following are rough descriptions of changes that a person might want to make to Article 41 – about the Family, Marriage, and duties in the Home.

You may see what you would have liked in some of the changes in the list below, or in ideas of changes that come to mind as you read the list. Then you can compare the change(s) that you would like with what the Dáil and Senate send to us in the Referenda. You can decide if the changes from either Referendum are good enough for you to vote Yes, or instead to vote No.

We show these examples of changes, so as to help you to decide what way to vote – while the options that the Dáil and Senate are giving to us are limited compared to these options. There are also many options in principle other than the ones printed here.

That a person might not like changes to Article 41 of the Constitution

1. No change – keep Article 41 as it is – vote No in both referenda.

To change the model of the Family in the Constitution – Amendment no 39

2. Base the Family on children – whether the person(s) rearing them is/are related or not.
3. Base the Family on the status of the relationship between the adults who are rearing the child(ren) – parents (married to each other, or not), or one or both person(s) who is/are not (a) parent(s).
4. Base the Family on what is the status of the relationship between the child(ren) and the person(s) who is/are rearing them – for example, parent, or other relative, or not related.

To change Caring and duties in the Home in the Constitution – Amendment no 40

5. Remove all reference to (mothers’) duty in the home – so it will cease to be sexist
6. Recognise work in the home by persons of all sexes – so it will cease to be sexist
7. Recognise caring work within some limits about where – for example, recognise care only in the home of the person receiving care.
8. Recognise caring work within some limits about care by which persons – for example, recognise care only by relatives, not by people not related.
9. Recognise caring work in the home or anywhere, by any person, even if not related.

The option that the 39^th Amendment offers looks like a version of No 3.

The option that the 40^th Amendment offers is a combination of Nos 5 and 8.

We have 3 further posts relevant to deciding how to vote.

1.  You can read about the Open Meeting, on Tuesday 20 February 2024, about the Amendments and the Referenda.
2. We show the present words of Article 41, together with the words as they will be if each Amendment is passed, and if both Amendments are passed.
3. We show the words of Articles 42 and 42A, because they contain State support for duties of parents that will remain in the Constitution if a majority of the people vote Yes to Amendment no 40. Here are 3 reasons to read these Articles –

1. 1. Article 42 supports the duty of parents to provide Education to their children.
   2. Article 42A supports the duty of parents to provide all aspects of care to their children.
   3. Both Articles 42 and 42A refer to parents, that is, both mothers and fathers (non-sexist).

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