FORMER MINISTER FOR JUSTICE Simon Harris has appealed for a yes vote in the upcoming referendums to be held on International Women’s Day, arguing that it is needed to recognise single parent families in the Constitution.

On 8 March this year voters will go to the polls to decide whether to update Ireland’s Constitution in relation to a number of issues. The public will be asked to vote on whether to amend an article referring to a woman’s role in the home, and another section that would widen the definition of family and recognise care in the home.

Minister Harris made the point today that as it stands, the Irish Constitution does not recognise single parent households as families. 

Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, Harris was asked about remarks made by former Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Senator Micheal McDowell who is advocating for a no vote.

In an opinion piece in the Irish Times yesterday, Senator McDowell argued that the proposed amendments to the Constitution serve “no positive purpose” apart from “ideological gesturing”. 

Harris disagreed with this argument.

“I’m looking forward to having an opportunity to get into the cut and thrust of referendum debates because in my mind, this referendum strives to do a number of things. It strives to say that we live in a country today where there are many families that are single parent families, and they are not recognised under the Constitution of Ireland as a family.

“Now if Senator McDowell wants to go out and say they’re not a family – vote no, best of luck to him. Best of luck to him,” Harris said.

“They’re families, they’re absolutely families,” he added.

Harris said the second thing the amendments propose to do is recognise that in the 21st century a woman’s place is not in the home.

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“This idea that the Constitution of Ireland will tell you that, is not right,” Harris said. 

As it stands, Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution states:  “In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.”

The government proposes to delete this from the Constitution and replace it with a new article that recognises care within the home in a non-gendered way.

“Senator McDowell can get into his legalistic arguments about how it hasn’t done any harm to any woman. It doesn’t sit well with me that that’s how our constitution reads and I don’t think it sits well with many people. And it’s not the Ireland that I want my daughter [to grow up in],” Harris said.

“The referendum does three things. The referendum respects single parent families. The referendum removes sexist, gendered, misogynistic language from the Constitution of the Republic, and the referendum, for the first time ever recognises and underpins the importance of care in our Constitution,” Harris added.