Some in this House do not agree with the Government that we should just delete the constitutional wording on women's place in the home. We should, instead, look at new wording which strengthens and provides cover for all sorts of gender neutral caring work. That, however, is not being allowed. It is going to be a simple deletion. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan, said yesterday that he is going to ask the Citizens' Assembly to consider the issue of caring work. Will the Taoiseach outline the timeline for that? How will we engage in this debate on the role of caring in our society between now and October? Why is it being rushed through? This needs time and real thought. Could this referendum not be done in the next batch? I fear that by rushing it through and not allowing a proper policy review of the role of caring in our society we are missing an opportunity.

I am happy to answer that. We gave this careful consideration and took the advice of people like former Justice Catherine McGuinness in coming to the decision we did. We decided that we should ask the people whether they want to delete that article on women in the home, which we believe is sexist and anachronistic, from our Constitution. We do not think we are rushing it at all. It was the Council for the Status of Women and the all-party committee on the Constitution, chaired by Deputy Brian Lenihan before he became a Minister, that made this recommendation.

The Convention on the Constitution recommended rewording.

This should never have been put into the Constitution in the 1930s never mind being kept there now. We did give consideration to putting in new wording on caring or amending the definition of the family, and bear in mind that this article is in the section on the family. These are, however, bigger issues. I and the Government do not believe we should tie up a decision on deleting this sexist anachronistic language from our Constitution with a debate on caring and families. Caring and families deserves careful consideration in its own right, we will do that in 2019 and, if we can come up with wording that is agreeable, we will put that to the people as well. It is time to separate this idea that women are inherently linked with caring and family because a woman's place is where she wants it to be and that is not necessarily in the home-----

Nobody is disagreeing with that.

We cannot have a debate on the matter.

It is complicated. Does it refer to just family carers? In cannot be in the family section of the Constitution-----

I know but we cannot have a debate on it here today.

We do need a debate on this.

It cannot be now.

Does it include commercial carers? Does it involve changing the definition of the family? The definition of the family in Ireland is based on marriage. That is anachronistic too. The Constitution does not see one parent or lone parent families as families. These are much bigger issues and they should not be tied in with deleting this sexist and anachronistic language from the Constitution. Doing that is long overdue, so let us do that and look at the issues on the definition of the family and constitutional protections on caring, and the people they care for whom we also have to bear in mind, as separate items.