Following a constructive engagement with Minister Roderic O’Gorman, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Executive Council agreed to support a YES YES vote in the upcoming referenda.
On the vote to extend protections for the family to a wider definition beyond marital families, to those in other durable relationships, the Executive Council agreed with the proposal and that in voting YES we are granting long needed recognition to the diversity of family life in today’s Ireland where there are 150,000 cohabiting couples and over 200,000 single parent families.
On the referendum to delete article 41.2 of the constitution and to replace it with a new article 42B recognising family care, there was a robust exchange with the Minister on the failure to follow the advice of both the Citizen’s Assembly on Gender Equality and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality to include both care within the home and the wider community. Unions around the table felt that this was a lost opportunity for the value of care in all its forms, the vast majority of which is provided by women, to be reflected in our constitution.
We noted the Minister’s response that care in the family home would not be possible without the paid care of many trade union members employed in our care infrastructure and that the provision that the State would “strive to support” the provision of such care within families includes reference to the wider care infrastructure that supports such care in families.
On that basis we agreed to support a YES vote in the care referendum and will seek to hold this Government and future Governments to account in this regard.
