The woman is as daft as a box of frogs on speed. And now because of the 50/50 rule we’re going to have to listen to her because she seems to be the only opposition.

It would be really great if the actual issues were debated, rather than people taking potshots at the campaigners they disagree with. So often online debates descend into personal abuse (on all sides) and the issues are conveniently ignored. nn

Hang on. The State has a horrible history of looking after children. We have sadly witnessed this in recent times.
This referendum gives the State more direct power/control over children , in certain circumstances ( or, will that be , where a Social Worker says so ?). We need a lot more information, in my opinion, before deciding on this. The State hardly provided great care in the Institutions during the last century.

What strikes me the most about this referendum is how blindly your willing to vote yes just because it’s called the Childrens Rights Referendum . “If you love kids you’ll vote yes”

The Vote will destroy the Family Unit if given a yes. The Family Unit are the head of the State in Ireland. If you vote yes you will be dismantling the core part of the Irish Constitution. It also paves the way for the reduction in State sponsored Foster Care to be replaced with increased adoption. When you consider the state pays 325e for all foster children under 12 and 352e for those over 12… did I mention this is a weekly , not means tested completely unique payment? For a Coalition trying to save money you can see why they would be doing this.

But most importantly, this State has an appalling record when it comes to the well being of children. Do you truly believe if we take the rights of the parent to decide what’s best for their child, that the state will somehow suddenly get any better?

Hyperbole should be this woman’s middle name. Listening to her is not good for the ol mental health.

We all want to protect children, but what will change after this referendum. It’s grand having laws to deal with every matter, we’ve had them since the Foundation of the Banana Rebublic. But will children be protected, laws enforced and sufficient resources available. A rule book is no good, if it’s not backed up!

In Ireland, any Garda can remove any child from anywhere, at anytime under Section 12 of the Child Care Act. The barrier to removing children of married parents is supposedly higher or at least that is what we are told to believe. The reality is that Gardai will remove a child if forced to, but in practice, rather than investigating and removing the child, they just call the HSE and pass on the concerns. This is not good enough.

Social workers in Ireland break the law on a daily basis by kidnapping children without a court order, they then lie to judges and say the child was removed under Section 12 by Gardai. The Judge grants an Ex-Parte Hearing on a fraudulent basis because the child is already in the “Care” of the HSE. Whenever Gardai have been confronted with the law, they rightly refused to participate in what is essentially Kidnapping. If the child was in actual danger, the Gardai would rightly remove the child and deliver them to the HSE.

What we are being asked to do in this Referendum, is to give the State more power to intevene more easily. It seems disengenuous then to call this a Children’s Rights issue, since the rights of children will be abused more easilly be removed on an ever decreasing threshold. A child’s right to be heard has always been ignored and replaced instead by a Guardian at Litem, who many children have told me is “just another social worker, working for the HSE”.

Problem with this referendum is that it doesn’t seem to concern itself with children’s right, both the children’s ombudsman and the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children both said that the exrpess rights of children should be included..they arent!!! Also this amendment does away with rights..the right to free primary education, homeschooling and the governments obligation to provide educational facilities. According to the children’s ombudsman, The failure of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution to recommend that express rights for children be included in the Constitution is a retrograde step in strengthening and protecting children’s rights. This means that children will not be recognised as individual rights holders.

the state has failed our children for many yrs a referendum wont change or fix whats already in place the whole system has to change for it to work as a parent im concerned about tgiving the state more power to interfere so im voting NO

Anything for publicity. Must be the only person in Ireland to oppose it. Even arch church conservative representative Ronan Mullen has backed it !!

FG politicians are a complete joke, they are liars they are corrupt and they are lackes of the UN/EU they have been ordered by the UN every 3 yrs for the last 20 yrs to weaken parental rights in the constitution, I only hope that if this passes that karma ensures that the yes voters are the only ones that have there children removed by a corrupt state

I am voting No. I do not want to give this Govt any more powers that they can abuse. Parents decide what’s best for their children not Enda Kenny and the whip system

I am not going to say any more than has already been said. There are many folk on here who are well educated on what plans the state has for our children. Its great to see how some people are willing to inform themselves on the truth, while others live in their blind illusion that the state is telling them the truth!! If the yes vote goes through you guys who have not informed yourselves on what is going to happen, prepare to escape with your kids to the far end of the globe!! Why do you think they are waiting to publish Ryan II. If they did it before the referendum, they wouldn’t have a hope in getting it passed!!

Who’s lying or has not done his homework?

“The Children’s Rights Alliance is a coalition of over 100 organisations working to secure the rights of children in Ireland, by campaigning for the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We aim to improve the lives of all children under 18 years, through securing the necessary changes in Ireland’s laws, policies and services.”

http://www.APS.ie

Every time I look at forums such as this and other social media sources I see a majority saying they are going to vioe No in the referendum but yet we are constantly told that this is going to pass with a landslide of over 90%. certainly not enough people know the facts about this amendment and the accompanying legislation and the UN lurking in the background, if they did most people would be against this referendum. Parents rights must be vindicated and government power must not be increased!! VOTE NO!!

The comments section on this article seems to have been captured by the barking mad and downright evil!

This referendum will finally balance the rights of children and the rights of parents. Currently there is a huge imbalance, with social workers having to go through Byzantine processes to protect children, whose parents are trying to keep the state from intervening to protect then.

I believe the State must have more rights to intervene where children are at risk. You will recall the meddling of a Right Wing Catholic nutter who legally challenged the State where they wished to remove children from their mother due to concerns about sexual abuse. The nutter triumphed and the children were destroyed in the ensuing years by a depraved woman.

Say what you want about FG but Jim Daly is 100% correct here; the wording of the amendment makes no reference what so ever to the UNCRC nor any mention to any EU directive or institution. Sinnott is lying through her teeth all for a bit of cheap publicity. If you don’t have a real argument Kathy, best advice to give you is to quote an old proverb: “It’s better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you’re a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

What is she on about?! If only the amendment did enshrine the UNCRC what a world that would be… WE signed it 20 years ago! It’s a beautiful document recognising basic fundamental rights for children everywhere.

Say no to this evil cow Frances Fitzgerald and no to th state, ask the question have they ever protect the children in care, the question need to be, do you trust the state with your child, remember the state had the same responsibilities in 1931 before we were ever born, and look what happened , loads of adoptions forced into place and children were sold off to other countries and child abuse was on the arising, very high in residential cares, and in 2006 the children’s referendum was changed again to HSE , did it make any difference, we don’t need to change the referendum, we only need to change th legalisation law by the courts to bill and protect the children, we have all the other fully protection otherwise under article 42,41′ and that’s all we need is to finalise the full protection not. In the wording of France’s fitzgerads secret children’s courts and conspiracy regime, and forcing maybe a non guilty parent by taking her child from her, even if she had no money to support her child’s needs and loved her child and that the child was loved and cared for and no harm has come to the child only deprived of hunger because her mum or dad could not afford bread and butter on the. Table, wrong,, as it is up to the state to provide bread and butter until the parents can go out and work,

She’s only back cos EU elections are in less than 2yrs… Hoping for her seat back, as a former constituent of hers she’ll never get a vote from me! Crazy bat!

Sinnott is actually correct, Angela Merkel wants to adopt Irish Children’s constitution into the GermAn Law of a federal convention, the Fiscal treaty and Lisbon treaty in fact all the Referendum were a no, so in order to fix this, they are making us vote on a second treaty so that they can forge it into the ammendment of the constitution, therefore, the only solution that her and Enda Kenny and other EU mebers like Britain and France and USA, came up with the cunning plan of removing the fundermentally protection in article 1, 8,10, and42,41,and all this has been there to protect the children and give them free medical and education, all this will be stripped from the children, which parents will then have to pay fee,s to contribute to the costs, and also profit from enforcing adoption laws and France’s Fitzgerald had a high reputation for that in the 1980’sin Ballymun and the areas that showed a small minority of poverty were a target, and France’s Fitzgerald was the woman in charge then, she took parents babies from them and adopted them, most were a majority of single parents, some married and seperated, check her out on Internet, the woman is evil, and if you want info of Angela merkel to forge a convention by autumn of oct to nov that too is in euro page or go to LRG and you will find the docs that will explain in details fully to you, UNited Nation will not protect your child, it will damage your child and they ate famous giving cocktail full of drugs and narcotics to your children to tame all of them and brain wash them, they are working with the USA Government and FEDs,