Arrogant and complacent Government should apologise to disabled, carers and families
The Government should apologise to carers, the disabled, families and women for their arrogant and complacent running of last Friday’s referenda, according to Labour Party election candidate and former Mayor of Kilkenny, Seán Ó hArgáin. He described the conduct of the campaign for the Government-proposed referenda as the worst he had seen in 35 years of political activism and said the Government had made an utter hames of such an important opportunity to modernise our constitution.
‘I have rarely seen the level of anger with a government proposal to the people that I have seen in recent weeks of canvassing in this referendum campaign. Even in the last week of the campaign, when I canvassed on High Street in the city, the anger and upset from young and particularly older voters was palpable. I had a stream of carers, many on the verge of tears approach me, expressing their frustration at a government who have ignored and devalued them for years.
The Government’s decision to ignore the advice of the Citizen’s Assembly and Labour’s proposed amendments on the wording of the care section was disastrous from the start. The opportunity to commit the people and government of our republic to make real provision for family and non-family carers was turned away for ideological reasons by this conservative coalition. Carers and the disabled or ill people they care for deserve much better.
The really unfortunate result is that the archaic and insulting language, which officially accuses women who chose, or need to work outside the home as constituting ‘the neglect of their duties in the home’, remains in our constitution. The women who have campaigned against this article since it was inserted in 1937 also deserve much better and the adding of insult to injury by this defeat coming on International Women’s Day makes it all the worse.
Finally, the failure of our constitution to recognise other family units, particularly those not based on marriage needs to be reversed as soon as possible. The ludicrous inclusion of the phrase ‘durable relationships’ led to scaremongering and played into the hands of the opponents of change. Families like those of Johnny O’ Meara are likely to continue to have to go to our courts to achieve their basic rights.’
Mr. Ó hArgáin pointed to the fact that he did not meet a single voter who had been canvassed by any of the government parties in Kilkenny on the referenda.
‘There were no posters, leaflets or any of the other normal communications of referendum campaigns. To hear the Chairperson of the Referendum Commission complain last week that they did not have time to ensure every house received the commission’s information booklet says it all. What is the point in. having a commission if we needlessly rush campaigns with all the expense involved to citizens and taxpayers?
It is now urgent that the government apologises to all of these groups for their fiasco of a campaign. They should learn from the marriage equality and other campaigns and build a real consensus among citizens and the campaign groups involved in seeking change. My own view is that this Government is incapable of achieving this. We need a general election as soon as possible. I will call for the Labour Party to lead the debate on future constitutional change but more importantly to lead the campaign for proper funding and provision for carers.’
