Wording for referendum to replace constitutional reference to women’s place in the home due shortly

The Government will publish wording for the referendum on women’s place in the home during September, a senior Government Minister has said.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien also said he expected the referendum to go ahead in November as planned, despite the delay in completing the text for the amendment.

Mr O’Brien was responding to a letter written by a number of organisations to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar seeking “urgent clarification” on when the wording would be made public. The Government originally intended that the text would be published by May but during the summer Mr Varadkar admitted that finalising an agreed text had been difficult.

Five organisations – Treoir, Family Carers Ireland, One Family, the National Women’s Council and Siptu – have formed a coalition urgently calling on the Government to publish this information.

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The referendum was announced last March on foot of recommendations from the Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality. The assembly recommended a referendum to remove the constitutional limits on women; to value and recognise care in the home and the wider community; and to protect all families equally.

The plans for either an omnibus vote on all of the issues, or potentially three referendums, were announced in March in what Mr Varadkar described then as a “tight timeline”. He told the Dáil last month the Government still intended to hold the referendum in November.

Asked about the delay, Mr O’Brien said: “I know that it has been discussed at [party] leaders’ level and with the Taoiseach as well. I haven’t seen that wording as of yet ... I don’t have any further updates with regards to the wording but it is a priority for the Government that we have a referendum.”

Mr O’Brien said the matter of the wording would be dealt with in the month of September.

Asked if the referendum would still go ahead in November, he replied: “I have not heard anything to the contrary.”