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SENIOR SINN FÉIN TD Matt Carthy has said that his party would not “at any stage” in the next Government consider rerunning the family and care referendums if they form the next Government.
His comments seemingly signal a u-turn for Sinn Féin on the matter, as back in February leader Mary Lou McDonald said that in the event that both referendums on changing the constitution failed – which turned out to be the case – Sinn Féin would rerun them with different wording.
Speaking on Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder this evening, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence Matt Carthy said that rerunning the referendums will not be on Sinn Féin’s priorities list “at all”.
Carthy said that Sinn Féin would focus on issues such as “housing, and the need to reform our health services” if it was in power in the next Government.
Distancing the party from its ‘Yes, yes’ stance during the referendum campaigns, Carthy said that Sinn Féin came to an “on balance” position, but always maintained that it would have run the referendum with different proposed wording.
He said that Senator Tom Clonan and people with disabilities put forward “very strong arguments” for a No vote in the care referendum, and that the Government failed to “rebuke” those arguments.
“It wasn’t our campaign,” Carthy said.
Carthy said that although his party advocated for a ‘Yes, yes’ vote in the referendums, it has always said that it would have opted for the wording recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality.
The Citizens’ Assembly in 2021 notably recommended that the Government should propose to delete the ‘Woman in the home’ article of the constitution and replace it with non-gender specific language, that obliges the State to take measures to support care within the home and wider community.
The Government’s proposed wording would have seen the State only having to “strive” to support the provision of care within the home, which critics said did not go far enough to support carers.
Back in February, when setting out Sinn Féin’s position, Mary Lou McDonald said: “Should this fail, well then yes, the question we would put would be the wording as per the Citizens’ Assembly,” she said.
McDonald at the time said Sinn Fein would rerun the referendums, with different wording, “early” in their term of Government.
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I think there is a new movement started in Clare called Independents together which encourages like minded people to have a voice in the running of our country. They are insistent that they are not a political party and nothing to do with Lucinda and co. I believe they have recruited candidates to run in the local elections,which is great , because people don’t know which way to vote now that they have seen the corruption of the last Gover. And the failure of this one to correct it.
What does new political movement actually mean to the person on the street I real terms… No property tax, no water charges, no a and e issues. Will we still have 166 tds on 100k a year plus expenses and advisors etc etc
A lot of these “new politicians” are also teachers with many of the taking a career break to do the honourable thing and return our country back to the people, we have had enough of teachers as they will upon getting elected receive their two pensions …..if they want to get elected resign from being a teacher before you want to be a politician that will endure you more to the people….
I think the word independent in independent td is being diluted
Great. If anyone needs any typesetting done, they know where to go. Do they advise on “photo air brushing ” etc.
Not sure if Donnelly will be involved.
He is already part of the technical group.
So do in this won’t change his impact.
Seems rather pointless TBH
Any vehicle that has Shane Ross and Pat Nulty in it is as attention seeking as it is utterly useless
the independent thought united vision doc is nice and vague, not sure the community orgs they mention are progressive
have your say