The All-Party Oireachtas Committee aims to bring the Constitution up to date by providing greater recognition for non-marital family units, writes Carl O'Brien
When de Valera and others sat down to draft the Constitution in 1937, it is clear they had just one form of family in mind: a family based on marriage.
Bunreacht na hÉireann recognised it as the natural unit of society and as a moral institution possessing "inalienable and imprescriptible rights". It also pledged to guard with special care the institution of marriage and protect it against attack.
The nature of the family, however, has changed radically in the intervening 70 years. Back then 3 per cent of births were outside marriage, widespread restrictions on entry to the workforce for women were in place and marriage breakdown was virtually unheard of. Today, a third of children are born outside marriage, women account for half of the workforce and there are almost 80,000 cohabiting couples, including 1,300 same-sex couples.
The All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution has been charged with updating Bunreacht na hÉireann and trying to capture the changing nature of the Irish family.
Its report, which prompted extraordinary public interest - 8,000 detailed submissions and 16,000 petitions - seeks to appease traditionalists and progressives by recognising social change without altering the traditional definition of the family.
But internal minutes of meetings show there was sharp division on the issue. Most of the committee, including Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the PDs, believed a constitutional amendment to widen the definition and be seen to provide for gay marriage would spark a divisive referendum along the lines of the highly charged abortion debates.
A minority, including Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin, said the basic democratic value of equality should extend to all forms of family life, such as lone parents or cohabiting couples with children.
Instead, the committee is expected to recommend legislation to provide for cohabiting heterosexual and same-sex couples through civil partnerships. These partnerships would extend "marriage-like" privileges by allowing for equality in areas such as taxation.
There are good reasons for the Government to adopt the recommendations. Cohabiting couples, discriminated against under tax laws, are a substantial and disgruntled voting bloc. If it takes the recommendations on board, the Government could argue it is promoting fairness for such couples, while also protecting the status of the family as being based on marriage.
The committee report is also likely to advocate constitutional change in other areas. For instance, it is expected to recommend that rights of individual children be set out clearly in the Constitution for the first time, whatever the circumstances of their birth, while at the same time preserving appropriate parental authority.
The result is likely to be a proposed article which would state that all children are equal before the law and that their best interests be held in regard at all times.
While this may address calls from the UN to improve the rights of children, it would also go some way towards giving greater recognition to natural fathers who have established a relationship with a child. They have no constitutional rights at present.
A recommendation to change the articles relating to women in the home to a gender-neutral form is also expected. The sexist nature of the articles, which assign to women a domestic role as wives and mothers, has long been criticised.
While demographic changes mean the 1937 Constitution is long out of date, it would be wrong to suggest there is now consensus on the changes the committee is expected to advocate.
Of the thousands of petitions and submissions received by the committee, at least 60 per cent argued against changing the constitutional status of the family. Diversity in family units means there are a variety of views on what constitutes the family. Although there may be enough in the proposed changes to keep many traditionalists and progressives happy.