THE WORDING for the children’s rights referendum will be finalised “soon” and there will be “plenty of time to have a very informed and thorough debate,” a Government spokesman said yesterday.
He said “nothing in particular” was holding up the publication of the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment under which married parents could consent to having their children placed for adoption.
There was a general discussion at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting on the referendum, for which no date has been announced. Separately, Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay yesterday said the referendum will “end an era when children were supposed to be seen and not heard”.
Labour TDs and Senators were briefed on the autumn referendum at the party’s annual “think-in” at Maynooth by Fine Gael Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Mr Finlay.
Mr Finlay, a former senior adviser to Labour, confirmed a number of children’s advocacy groups would band together during the campaign.
“We’ve been campaigning for years to have this referendum and we’re very excited at the prospect that it is about to happen,” he said.
“A number of us in our sector, organisations like the ISPCC, the Children’s Rights Alliance, ourselves in Barnardos, we’ll be coming together to run a joint campaign.”
The purpose of the campaign would be “to try to foster the idea right around the island of Ireland that the time has come to put children’s rights in the Constitution and to change the culture and practices of the past: to end an era when children were supposed to be seen and not heard”.
Ms Fitzgerald told reporters: “We’re on track to have that referendum as a stand-alone referendum in the autumn. It has been spoken about for years – probably well over 20 years since it was first recommended.
“We intend to publish it alongside the adoption legislation and clearly the Government will make a decision as to the exact timing; it’s clearly going to be in this Dáil term and it is a priority for us.”
