On the proposed referendum on Article 41.2.1° of the Constitution, the Tánaiste is aware that many of us, including groups outside the House like the National Women's Council of Ireland, are very much of the view that rather than a simple repeal, it would be preferable to use this opportunity for public debate on the role of caring within families. It would be a better approach and it is the approach recommended by the Citizens' Assembly. The Tánaiste is also aware that a Government request to waive the pre-legislative scrutiny of this proposed legislation was refused by the Business Committee this morning. In light of that, will the Government rethink its approach to this referendum? Will it consider listening to what we have been saying for some time and allow this opportunity for that public debate, which we all think could be helpful?

The Government has been listening to that concern and we have had a number of debates in the Cabinet on it. The legal advice to the Government is very clear and the recommendation is to simply remove language from the Constitution. If we are going to go through a process of trying to put new language into the Constitution reflecting the importance of caring, the home and so on to replace that wording, it would certainly take some time. The Government is proposing to follow the legal advice we have while starting a conversation around the kinds of concerns outlined by the Deputy and others, including how we could deal with that in legislation. We would not be able to do what we would like to do in October if we must try to find a way to get right new language in the Constitution reflecting the really important role of caring in the home.

Instead, what we want to focus on is taking something that is inappropriate in terms of language out of the Constitution and keeping that clean and simple.