Ireland to Vote on Expanding the Definition of Family | EWTN News Nightly

all tomorrow in Ireland on International women's day people will go to the polls to vote on two big referendums the first the family referendum the government proposes to expand the definition of the word in the Constitution to recognize what it calls quote durable relationships this means couples cohabitating and their children the second the care referendum the Constitution has a specific section dedicated to women and their life within the home the state proposes removing those two AR article

s and replacing them with a new article relating to care provided by family members for more let's bring in Irish conservative campaigner and barister Maria Steen who has campaigned on the issues of same-sex marriage and abortion in Ireland good to be with you today Maria thank you for your time uh first all let's start with this proposed new definition of family it seems sort of vague what does it mean and what or who is behind this well the Irish people are being asked to vote uh tomorrow 8th

of March uh on two different issues the first as you say is in relation to the family so as things stand at the moment it's to make a change to the Irish Constitution and as things stand the Irish Constitution recognizes that uh the family is founded on marriage it gives a special place of honor to marriage uh in the Constitution the government is proposing to change that uh to change it to a definition that that the family is based either on marriage or on other durable relationships now the go

vernment isn't able to tell us what durable relationships means and uh Al although it has been put to them many times they say it will be up to the courts to decide so in effect the Irish people are being asked to vote on something with no definition that they don't know who the parties to it are or uh the the effects that it will have I want to talk now about the care referendum right now um Irish women I understand can work if they choose the Constitution says they shouldn't have to work becau

se of economic hardship what will you know if the care referendum is passed what will happen there well at the moment the wording of the constitution in relation to women and mothers is um I suppose under discussion that's again the the the government is talking about uh deleting the word word woman the word mother and the word home from our constitution so ju just to give you an idea of what the Constitution currently says it says in particular the state recognizes that by her life within the h

ome woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved Maria what are people saying about this in particular women what have you heard well I think there's a lot of concern um among women and it's funny it's an unusual usual when there is a kind of consensus uh among people from the left and the right and the middle uh there's a feeling among women that the idea the symbolism of erasing the words woman and mother from the Constitution is in effect grotesque uh an

d I am hoping that the people will reject the government's proposal could there be un forcing consequences on inheritance and property if these proposed changes go through absolutely so one of my uh big concerns is in relation to the uncertainty that it creates in people's lives the benefit of marriage is that everybody knows what they're getting into uh and because of the and of course we're not talking about religious marriage here we're talking about civil marriage State marriage H and the be

nefit to it is that because it is um publicly witnessed everybody knows that both parties have consented to it if there is no such external evidence then you could have a situation where a couple who are dating longterm and subsequently break up one party decides well I was in a durable relationship and um goes to the court and gets such a declaration and if a durable relationship is put at the same level as a as a marriage which is what the government is proposing then they enjoy the same right

s they would enjoy the same rights as married people so for instance somebody could make a claim for inheritance or maintenance um from a former boyfriend or girlfriend uh at the same level as a husband or wife could and and the other person had never consented to being in a marriage or a marriage-like relationship well we will be keeping our eye on what happens there in Ireland tomor Maria thank you so much for your time we appreciate it God bless you thank you [Music] Trac [Music]