TENSIONS HAVE increased between the Government and Fine Gael over ever-strengthening signals from the Government that a children’s referendum will not be held, despite commitments by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Insisting that no final decision has been made, Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews said children’s rights are already protected under the Constitution, and legislation already passed has never been challenged in the Supreme Court.
So far, he said, the Oireachtas committee on child protection has received “very strong advices” from a majority of legal experts it has consulted that a constitutional referendum is not necessary, and could do harm.
The committee, chaired by former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke, is due to finish its work by the end of November. Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter last night strongly criticised Mr Andrews’ latest comments – though these have been echoed by others in the Government – and warned that “he may be endangering vulnerable children in the future”.
He added: “Minister Andrews is wrong when he claims that a referendum is not necessary to achieve the highest level of protection for our children. The Minister is publicly misrepresenting the legal position, as well as the advice given to the Oireachtas committee which was set up to deal with this issue.”
The Government, Mr Shatter said, has “clearly abandoned” its programme for government pledge to hold a referendum to protect children by reinstating the offence of statutory rape, to create a zone of absolute protection for children and to re-enact the absolute liability law, which requires adults to ensure they do not have sexual intercourse with under-age partners.
It also seemed that the Government was abandoning its commitment to hold a broader constitutional referendum to give explicit expression to children’s rights, to secure the best interests of children, and to facilitate the adoption of children in long-term care, Mr Shatter said.
Barnardos’ chief executive Fergus Finlay said: “If we are serious both about protecting children and upholding their rights, a Constitutional referendum is urgently needed.
“There are many reasons why this is the case. We need to learn from the mistakes of the past and create a new culture where children can be assured of full protection under the law.”
