Tánaiste concurs on need for time for ‘proper information campaign’ for gender equality referendum

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said that he agrees with chief executive of the Electoral Commission, Art O’Leary, who maintains that a “proper information campaign” in advance of as many as three referendums on gender equality will take up to 16 weeks.

There is some doubt that the referendum will take place in November as the Government intended when the plans were announced in March.

There are proposals for the people to vote on the issues of gender equality, the definition of “family” and the “place of women in the home”.

The plan is for either an omnibus vote on all of the issues or potentially three referendums, but no wording has yet been finalised.

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Mr O’Leary told The Irish Times: “It is difficult to see how we could do a proper information campaign if we had less than the 14 to 16 weeks required.”

That timescale indicates that, ideally, the wording would be ready in August if the vote is to be held before the end of November.

Speaking on Friday, Mr Martin did not say whether the Government still intended to have the referendum in November.

He said: “I would agree with the chief executive of the Electoral Commission.

“I have always consistently been of the view that we do need a proper preparation time in advance of any referendum.

He added that “the issues here are complex” and it was not “just about the deletion of certain articles”.

“It is about issues pertaining to care and so on. So there are issues there that we need to get right.”

Earlier in the week Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “We’re still aiming for November. We have had some difficulty agreeing on the wording.”

He highlighted two aspects of the referendum, the first being the wording of the Constitution that says that the family is founded on marriage.

Mr Varadkar said: “I think we all agree that in the modern world there are lots of families that are not marital families ... but we need to make sure that we get that wording right and people don’t misinterpret it.”

He also mentioned proposals to replace “the old-fashioned wording around the role of women in the home with something affirmative” that “recognises the value of care in the home”.

He said: “We just need to make sure we get the wording right, but we’re going to do it.”