Madam, – Minister of State Barry Andrews has suggested that a referendum on the rights of children could be held on the same day as the general election (Home News, January 15th). This is a dismal prospect.
First, it is anybody’s guess when the election will take place, due to the three-ring circus currently being performed by Fianna Fáil.
Second, it does not take a genius to work out that, on the day of the election, the issue to the forefront of every voter’s mind will be the selection of a new government. This is not to say that the rights of children issue does not need to be resolved.
It would be a grave error on the part of this Government to throw the crucially important matter of the full protection of children into the fire like this.
In the wider context, the proposed wording of the amendment to the Constitution will be a thorny problem. Either the wording will be too simplistic to make it understandable to the ordinary layman, or it will be so complex that the vast majority of people will not have the faintest idea what it is they are being asked to vote on. Does anyone, for example, recall the referendum on bail laws? Herein lies the increasingly onerous task of trying to update Bunreacht na h-Éireann. Our Constitution, formulated in the main by a man whose mindset was isolationist to say the least, has for many years resembled a Heath Robinson apparatus held together by lots of sticky tape.
Surely there has to be a better way to come up with a lasting, equitable solution to the problem of the rights of children. Have we not got a surfeit of legal experts well versed in the intricacies of children’s law? Let them deliberate at length and advise the government accordingly. It would then be sufficient for the new government to legislate to fully protect children. – Yours, etc,