WITH JUST DAYS to go before the country goes to the polls for the family and care referendums, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has urged people to vote Yes Yes in a final push ahead of Friday.
Varadkar said there is no guarantee that any future Government would rerun the referendums if they do not pass and said the only way to guarantee removing “sexist” language from the Constitution is to vote Yes on the care question.
His comments come after Mary Lou McDonald pledged recently that Sinn Féin would re-run the questions with the wording as proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly, if they get into government next time around.
Without naming Sinn Féin, the Taoiseach said there is no guarantee that any political party would rerun these referendums if they do not pass.
He added that he favours an “incremental” approach to social progress.
“That’s a big risk to take, there’s no guarantee that that will happen, nor that it will be voted for. And I always believe that when it comes to social progress in Ireland, the best approach is an incremental one.
“We had civil partnership before marriage equality. We had the right to travel and information around abortion before we had abortion rights. We had limited divorce before we had full divorce rights,” he said.
Speaking to reporters while out canvassing in Dublin’s Ranelagh today, the Taoiseach said he is certainly not taking the result of the referendums for granted.
“I do think it is in the balance,” he said as he urged people to get out and use their vote on Friday.
“A lot of people are really only getting around to thinking about how they’re voting now. I’m appealing for a good turnout. Decisions are made by those who turn up,” he said.
Varadkar stressed the importance of the referendums and said of the family one:
“If you think about it, if there’s a No vote on Saturday morning, hundreds of 1000s of children in Ireland will wake up to hear that Irish society has decided that their family isn’t a constitutional family, isn’t an equal family, just because their parents aren’t married. And that’s not right.”
On the care referendum, the Taoiseach said if there is a No vote, Ireland will have “very outdated language in our Constitution, that will be there for the foreseeable future”.
It was put to the Taoiseach by The Journal that there has been limited engagement from a lot of the public on these referendums.
When asked if he feels he has personally done enough to get people interested in them he responded:
“I’ve done I think, certainly five to 10 national broadcast and radio spots and local radio too. I’ve delivered 35,000 leaflets in my constituency and I’ve done quite a number of canvasses as well, but it’s not about me.”
“It’s about families. About recognising all families are equal, regardless of the marital status of their parents or even if they’re raised by their parents at all.
“It’s about taking some really outdated language about women out of our Constitution and putting in for the first time, special recognition for family carers. So I’ll be doing everything I can between now and Friday to campaign for a Yes vote,” he said.
The Taoiseach said there is a lot of myths to dispel when it comes to these two referendums.
On the impact a Yes vote in the family referendum might have on immigration levels, the Taoiseach said immigration law is a matter for the Executive (the Government and elected representatives as opposed to the courts).
“People who are married to a migrant person at the moment don’t have an automatic right to reunification. So obviously, that’s not going to change,” he said.
On some of the discourse around defining what a durable relationship is, the Taoiseach said:
“People are trying to make out that you could accidentally find yourself in a durable relationship, or that some sort of clandestine relationship could be a durable relationship. And that’s not the case.”
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