A YEARS-LONG campaign to insert a constitutional clause safeguarding the rights of the child set to be agreed by ministers at this morning’s cabinet meeting, ahead of a referendum later this year.
The wording of the new clause, which has been under consideration for several years, will be presented to the cabinet by children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald.
The agreement of cabinet means the legislation which triggers the holding of the referendum can be tabled in the Dáil – years after a previous wording was agreed upon by an all-party Oireachtas committee, only to be held up over legal concerns.
That may not happen for some time, however, as the government may first seek to meet with interest groups and explain the wording with them – hoping to deal with any concerns that those groups may have about the potential impact of the choice of words.
This follows concerns among some groups in the last few weeks that the wording could result in the state gaining the power to strip parents of their children or enforce vaccinations for children against their parents’ will.
The referendum on children’s rights would be the fourth held in the lifetime of the current government, after last year’s ballot on Oireachtas inquiries and judicial pay, and this year’s vote on ratifying the European fiscal compact treaty.
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