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A GROUP OF barristers have argued for two No votes in the upcoming referendums, stating that the carers amendment is “utterly toothless”.
The Lawyers For No group, comprising around 10 members, raised concerns about inserting wording on “durable” relationships and on removing a reference to mothers’ duties in the home.
Two referendums will be held on 8 March proposing to change the Irish constitution.
The family amendment proposes extending the meaning of family beyond one defined by marriage and include those based on “durable” relationships.
The care amendment proposes deleting references to a woman’s roles and duties in the home, and replace it with a new article that acknowledges family carers.
Senator Michael McDowell, a former tanaiste and ex justice minister, said there would be a “decisive” 60-40 defeat of both referendums.
Leading the concerns on behalf of the Lawyers For No group, he said that extending the meaning of family to being based on durable relationships is “unnecessary” and “introduces huge uncertainty into our fundamental law”.
He said that requests to define what durable is gets “confused, half explanations”, some of which are “mutually contradictory”.
He said that it is “unnecessary” to extend the meaning of family in the constitution to other durable relationships as “we’re of the view that there is nothing that a single parent or a de facto cohabiting couple cannot be given by statute”.
He said that during a Seanad debate, an amendment was put down proposing to define “durable” based on those decided by the Oireachtas and designated by law.
“If you think that by widening the definition of family, you’re simply engaging in some broad brush, gestural amendment of the Constitution, you have another thing coming because every single word that’s in the Constitution and that’s been taken out of the constitution will be parsed and analysed by all the courts in the future.”
He said that the Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman had argued this would create a “differential approach” between families.
“The door will be open to what we call concurrent or successive families with multiple partners common to each.
“Can a male partner be ‘the man’ in two families at the same time and can somebody leave a durable relationship and then get married in circumstances that leaves effectively two families in existence?”
On the care amendment, McDowell said labelling it the “women in the home” amendment is a “deliberate distortion” and said the new article on care is “utterly toothless”.
The current wording recognises that “by her life within the home” women supports the State, and that “mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”.
The proposed wording is that the State “shall strive to support” the provision of care by family members.
Asked whether he believes the change could lead to the opposition of the home credit, McDowell said: “No, I don’t think you could do that.
“I’m not making any wild claims because the Oireachtas is the master of the law.”
Asked whether he would have voted Yes for the Citizens’ Assembly wording, that said the state would take “reasonable measures” to support carers, he said: “I’m generally reluctant on a separation of powers basis for the courts to get involved in budgetary matters.
“I do believe that the place across the road (the Oireachtas) is the place for all these decisions to be made.”
He added: “I think there’s an agenda out there at the moment, I call it the gender agenda, to remove all gender from statutes and bills and the like and just to deal with people as if women and motherhood was just another thing that happens to persons and to take away the value that constitution gives them.”
He said he encourages everyone to come out to vote, but said he believed the No vote would be “much more highly motivated”.
Columnist and barrister Brenda Power said: “There is no pressing social injustice that they can point to that will be rectified by inserting the words durable relationships.”
Architect and barrister Maria Steen, barrister and TD Michael McNamara and several other barristers were also in attendance at the event on Thursday.
McNamara asked whether “we’re going to be presenting Christmas cards in the Supreme Court to force the state to recognise certain things?”
The Government parties, Sinn Fein, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, the National Women’s Council, One Family and Treoir are all advocating for a Yes vote in both referendums.
TD Peadar Toibin’s Aontu party and Senator Ronan Mullen are among those advocating for a No vote in both plebiscites.
Some organisations, such as Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac), are advocating for a Yes vote on the family amendment and a No vote for the care amendment.
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Fair play young dude
We need to teach coding at a young age. Take religion out of primary school and introduce very basic programming to kids. It should also be availible for junior and leaving cert. I am learning C# at the moment and really regret i have not learnt to code at a younger age.
The poor kid , he is very young to be getting into the dog eat dog. We idolise tech “leaders” so much today , I hope he isn’t chewed up in the cogs
Is there an adult version of coder dojo anywhere? Don’t know if I would like to do it as a career but wouldn’t mind learning the basics. Coder dojo seems like a nice way to do that but don’t wana be shown up by a bunch of ten ye old! ;-)
Plenty of courses you can pay for. I’m not sure how many people will dedicate time to teach adults for free. Although there’s a huge amount of free courses online… Do a google for “mooc” to get started.
Didn’t realise coder dojo was free. Wouldn’t mind paying for a few casual classes but going as far as a night course seems a big commitment considering I know some people who did entire college courses and hated every minute. Will try some of the online options. Cheers.
edx.org have a brilliant free online course from Harvard cs50 i think its what it is called. Also FAS e collage do a great “Changing yyour carer to the I.T sector online. It prepares you to get a MTA qualification in Networking, Software development, or Database analysis. Its free if you are on job seekers and its not too expensive if you are working. I am doing both courses and they compliment each other very well.
Have a look at night classes in your local community schools. Usually quite cheap and no long term commitment. I think usually 8-10 weeks at about a tenner a week.
Best of luck, I really hope it works out for you.
And forget about people who did comp sci and hated it. Massive overgeneralisation here on my part but I find they only did comp sci ‘cos computers are easy’ without knowing what they were getting into. If you have the interest then you already have a much better chance of success than them!
Give this a lash Barry, http://www.codecademy.com
Maybe skip the HTML/CSS course and try the Javascript or one of the others first.
Thanks for all the help. Loads to look at there. Maybe the first thing I’ll do when I’m able to program is create an education comparison site! There’s so much out there, some offering certifications some just the training and knowledge.
In people’s experience if you can show that you can code and write your own programs/apps/websites whatever, do employers look for proof of training? Does someone in the workplace who may be just as able and “self” taught earn as much as someone who has a degree or diploma or does the lack of paperwork hold people back?
It’s helpful to have certifications in order to get the foot in the door but not essential. I’m self-learned and am an engineer in one of the biggest IT companies in the world. But I started at a technician in PC World.
There are also one year conversion courses you can do that might be worth looking into if you already have a level 8 degree in another area and are in the position where you can spend a year in college. As far as I know most of them are being paid for by the government because there’s a skills shortage.
Codecademy.com go learn a language… I bet you enjoy it and I bet you will want to learn more!!
This is a new one- I was expecting to read The Journal comments section had won the Nigerian lotto!!
CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH(C.A.C) CREDIT UNION
Email: cacinternationalloanfirm@gmail.com
Head office Address……Dalston 52 Ashwin Street F9 7DL, united states
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GOD BLESS YOU as I await to here from you
Rev. Dolphy Anderson
Zonal Overseer(C.A.C) Credit Union
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