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A LACK OF recognition that the State has a responsibility towards disabled, sick and elderly people was one of the main reasons the Care referendum was resoundingly defeated, a leading No campaigner has said.
Dr Margaret Kennedy, one of the founders of the Equality Not Care group, thanked the public for listening to disabled people’s concerns.
Speaking on Today with Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1, Kennedy said the proposed amendment classed disabled people as “burdens” on their families and society.
“We felt like we were a burden, that we were being cast as burdens on society. And so families would look after us, but the State wouldn’t. There was no recognition that the State had any responsibility for disabled citizens or sick citizens or elderly citizens.”
A total of 1,114,620 people (73.93%) voted No in the Care referendum, compared with 393,053 Yes voters (26.07%). This marks the highest ever percentage No vote of the 38 referendums that have taken place in the history of the State.
The proposed amendment, if passed, would have seen the deletion of reference to woman’s “life within the home” and her “duties in the home”.
A new Article 42B would have said the following: “The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision.”
‘Ableism is a disease’
Kennedy was one of the many disability rights campaigners to criticise the use of the word “strive”, saying it wouldn’t place any onus on the State to actually help carers or people who require care.
She said there now needs to be a wider conversation around ableism and how society treats disable people.
Ableism is the notion that society is run by and for only people who are well and not disabled. Ableism is a very, very big sword that’s chopping us to pieces here.
“Non-disabled people really must understand that ableism – that is the exclusion of disabled people and ill people and older people – is actually very, very rooted in politics.
“We have to get it out of politics. We have to get out of education. We have to get it out of medicine.
“It is almost like a disease in its own right that is eating away at the whole community.”
Speaking on the same programme, Aideen Hayden, former chair of Threshold (the national housing charity) and former Labour senator, said the landslide No/No was “a failure of wording” and “a failure of communication”.
“The real issue was that people felt something was being taken away from them, rather than something was being given to them,” she said.
Hayden campaigned for a Yes/Yes vote, as did the Labour Party.
The Family referendum proposed extending the constitutional definition of families beyond those based on marriage to those also based on “durable relationships”. It was rejected by 67.7% of voters amid concerns about issues such as succession laws.
Hayden believes the Government went into the referendum campaign “in all sincerity” but didn’t do “the work that they needed to do”.
“The Government were happy to just take high level aspirations and not put in the work to say, ‘Okay, what does a durable relationship look like?’
“Let’s put forward an explanation as to what that is, whether that be legislative explanation or, you know, the grounds of what could be a potential piece of legislation,” she said.
When conceding defeat yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government clearly “got it wrong”.
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The Greek government is really frustrating not only has Europe bent over backward to help them while Ireland like the mugs are government are pay the full price of a bailout but now they do this, I never agree with sarkozy but on this occasion I do!!
Let’s be honest, the Greeks deserve little sympathy for the disgraceful way they cooked the books to get into Europe, the way they continually run their country in the awful manner and in the way they have been expectibg everybody else to sort out their problems with no negative ramifications.
But I don’t have a problem with them having a referendum on what will be a huge financial decision made by a country that could effect millions for decades. It is a truly democratic act. Irrespective of whether or not the Greeks caused their own downfall , it’s an act of oppression for European leaders to force savage cuts without the agreement of the Greek people.
Don’t want to hear that Greece signed up to this with eu as nobody who signed upto join Europe envisaged this scenario.
While it annoys and puts the rest of us out, I think the Greek government gave its people the choice to take harsh medicine or go down a potentially harder route. For me that’s very much less efficient then taking the tough choices for your country but it’s as democratic as it gets.
Stable door, horse bolt, shutting afterwards …. Etc etc
what an outrageous suggestion to let the people affected by the austerity measures decide their fate …thank god our government aren’t that foolish and continue to do our thinking for us
I’d welcome a referendum here. It’d be good to see those who advocate a rejection of the IMF and a unilateral default lay their cards on the table. I think the response of the Irish people would be interesting when they see the figures.
ok to all the people who may have had a sarcasm by pass… i will spell it out plainly… we should have had a referendum 2 years ago but those in power (in their wisdom) decided that they know whats best for US and we should just put up and shut up and take the austerity medicine …in order to protect their own elitist asses….
Where do they expect the money to come from? Is it not a clever tactic by papandreou to make them tow the line a bit? Surely they’ll have to vote yes whether they really want it or not and then he proceeds effectively with the support of the nation, rather than taking the blame for the decision himself, the whole country make the decision which in turn might diminish the civil unrest……either that of they kick off big style, vote no and then he’s F*****d!!!
The wording of the referendum will be vital. They probably won’t define what No means. If it was defined as ‘Greece unilaterally defaults and leaves Euro’ then Greeks might vote Yes. If it is defined ‘Greece will reject this deal and look for a better one’ then it will probably be a No vote.
But I can see the ECB etc getting rightly frustrated with this. They might frame the No vote as being a rejection by Greece of the Euro and just accept that Greece is defaulting and leaving the Euro. it’d be very tempting to be rid of the Greek problem once and for all. Taxpayers in Germany would love the idea. But the worries about how bad Greece might get would probably be too much. However bad Greece is, it could get a hell of a lot worse.
I Presume a referendum will take months to arrange (and probably be lost) and all the while the rest of Europe suffers more Market turmoil. I also presume no mention was made by the Greeks of a referendum when agreeing to an extremely generous bailout package. If that be the case, the deal should be taken off the table and let Greece paddle it’s own (very leaky) canoe outside of the Eurozone. Better to stand back and watch Greece burn rather than fiddle while the rest of us do.
We are watching what will be the end of euro. Greece will never be able to service there debt, Italy is now in trouble with Portugal,Spain,Belgium & Ireland all waiting in the wings. Hopefully they find away for members to return to there own currency’s and dissolve the euro. Not an easy task I know.
We all know this going to end in tears, so why keep dragging it out. Let’s ended it know and start the rebuilding process sooner rather than later.
Europes grand fudge began to unravel yesterday before Greeces referendum announcement.
China’s official statement on Sunday that it will not be bailing Europe out put the initial spanner in the works.
EU leaders proposal is heavy on aspiration but light on concrete measures.
Europes crisis may well overtake events before any Greek poll.
At long last.. the turkeys will have a say on Christmas.
This is brilliant move. Watch the suits shaking in their boots and remember keep laughing when they start the scaremongering. The fairy story called capitalism a la brothers Grimm is coming to an end.
End it now guys and put away your lovely lecterns over there in Brussels. Professional unelected bullying is not a real job anyway and I fear you will all find it quite hard back with the rest of us in the real world here on planet Earth
Home of democracy allows its citizens exercise democracy at the ballot box. Seems reasonable. How many in Ireland would have voted through the Cowen-Lenihan bak guarantee?
Depends on the alternative. No doubt you wod paint No, and unilateral default, as being fantastic. Let’s have your vote nw and see how things stand. Let’s see if the unions are happy with the bailout or want a default. Lets see if the multinationals are spooked by a unilateral default. Let’s see how Sinn Fein plan to balance the books when the country has no access to borrowing.
Let’s see some facts and figures. I want to see this populist message that telling the IMF to get stuffed will mean that the government will be able to spend more money really get explained in detail to the Irsh people.
The Cowen-Lenihan bank guarantee shifted the private debts of the banks onto the sovereign balance sheet, the taxpayer balance sheet in effect. The knock on effect has produced NAMA, the majority of its debt is due to just 650 borrowers, and bumper bank recapitalisations. Meanwhile, in the midst of all this ‘recovery’ and fixing ‘systemic’ banks such as Anglo and INBS, credit is tighter than ever, property prices are still falling, mortgage distress is worsening, insolvencies in SMEs are ‘levelling out’ after four years of a flood, unemployment is topped at an artificial ‘low’ of 450k due to emigration, record numbers in third level and in various schemes. Having referendums on policies that carry the risk of bankrupting one if not two generations, and tearing up the social fabric of families for decades, do not strike me as unreasonable.
3 holes in EU’s debt plan. Not including any hint as to how renewed growth is to be achieved.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/31/european-debt-deal-holes/?section=money_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+%28Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+International
Only growth will resolve Europes crisis.
http://ukhousebubble.blogspot.com/2011/10/only-economic-growth-can-resolve.html?m=1
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