THE WORDING of a constitutional amendment enshrining children’s rights has been agreed following discussions between the office of the Minister of State for Children, Barry Andrews, and Attorney General Paul Gallagher.
Mr Andrews said yesterday the wording was agreed in the run-up to Christmas.
He said the wording awaited formal Cabinet approval but he was confident a decision could be made early this month. That would pave the way for the necessary legislation to hold a referendum to be introduced in the Dáil. He said the amendment would give strong constitutional backing to the rights of children.
If the general election did not take place until late March, Mr Andrews said, there was no reason why the referendum could not take place on polling day.
“It is feasible in the context of a late March election. It would be extremely tight certainly, but possible. If you were talking about an election in the first week of April, we would definitely be able to do it. I am not privy to the discussions on the date of the election but I am proceeding on the basis that it is doable,” he said.
He said the text of the amendment agreed was broadly based on the proposed wording unanimously agreed by the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children last February. However, he said it also drew on the text for a constitutional amendment on children presented to the Oireachtas four years ago by then minister of state for children Brian Lenihan.
The text presented by Mr Lenihan in February 2007 proposed the insertion of a new Article 42(A) dedicated to children. It acknowledged and affirmed the “natural and imprescriptible rights” of all children. It also set out exceptional circumstances in which the State could supply the place of parents when they failed in their parental duties.
Last year’s proposal from the all-party committee went further by suggesting that Article 42 be amended in its entirety. Section 1 of the amended article provided that “in the resolution of all disputes concerning guardianship, adoption, custody, care or upbringing of a child, the welfare and best interests of the child shall be the first and paramount consideration”.
Mr Andrews said yesterday that a huge amount of work had been done to find a suitable wording and expressed confidence that the referendum could be held before the Government stepped down.
