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HOWLIN URGES AGREEMENT ON
TIMING AND FORM OF CHILDREN’S AMENDMENT
Friday, 8 February, 2008
Every effort must now be made to reach agreement between
the government and opposition parties on the timing and
format of the proposed constitutional amendment on
children’s rights and measures to protect children from
sexual predators.
The first thing required is a clear statement from the
government as to its intentions with regard to the date
for the referendum on the Lisbon Reform Treaty as this
decision will have a major impact on options in regard
to the children’s referendum.
If it is the government’s intention to proceed with the
Lisbon referendum in May then I believe that it would be
virtually impossible for the Oireachtas Committee on the
Constitutional Amendment on Children to have concluded
its consideration in time for this deadline. A Lisbon
referendum later in the year might possibly allow the
Committee to conclude its consideration by this date,
but it would still be a major challenge to do so.
The Labour Party had originally supported the principle
of decoupling the two elements of the children’s
amendment, taking the measures to protect children from
sexual predators first and putting this to the people at
an earlier date. However, it is clear from the
discussions of the Committee to date that this issue is
even more complex than we had anticipated. There are
huge issues involved in this amendment that impact on
our criminal law and on the constitutional rights of
young people. I am now moving towards the view that it
may not be possible to deal with the issues in time to
allow the early taking of the ‘child protection’
provisions.
The form in which these issues will be put to the people
is also of enormous importance. The original proposal
from the government last year that there would be one
amendment put to the people that would include the child
protection element as well as the child welfare
proposals for which the people would have to vote simply
yes or no. However, it is quite possible that some
people will favour the child protection proposal, but
have concerns about the child welfare section, or vice
versa. The danger here is that if a person opposes one
proposition he or she will also have to vote against the
other in order to ensure its defeat.
I am disappointed that it has taken so long to finalise
an amendment to deal with the consequences of the
Supreme Court judgement on statutory rape and I also
understand the concerns of advocacy groups in finalise
the child welfare proposals. However, it is important
that we get it right. When the constitutional amendment
on divorce was defeated in 1986 and it took another ten
years before it could be put to the people again. If we
get this amendment wrong and it is defeated in a
referendum it will probably be another decade before the
matter could be addressed again.
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