Sir, – Rev Patrick G Burke (May 14th), draws attention to a critical aspect of the divorce referendum namely, the proposal in it of transferring permanently the power to determine the waiting period from the Constitution to the Oireachtas.
As he rightly says, while this referendum commits the Oireachtas to an immediate reduction to what I would consider a commendable two years, in essence we are being asked to give any future Oireachtas the power to change it without the people’s approval in a referendum (Ireland of the quickie divorce maybe down the road sometime?).
Also I find that the Referendum Commission’s brochure explaining the referendum, makes no attempt to draw attention to this (similar to the superficiality of general media comment) and only refers to this transfer of power under the recognition of foreign divorces section. – Yours, etc,
CIARAN Mc ARDLE,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.