What are the referendums Ireland will vote on in March all about? Everything explained

Registered voters across Ireland will cast their vote this March 2024 on two referendums.  

Bills on care and the family were published in early December 2023 and propose amendments to the Irish Constitution for a wider concept of family, and to remove and replace text on the role of women in the home. 

If passed, it will mean the Irish Constitution will be amended for the thirty-ninth and fortieth time. 

What exactly will be changed? 

The Family Bill (White coloured ballot paper) 

The Thirty-Ninth Amendment of the Constitution (The Family) Bill 2023 proposes to amend Article 41.1.1 to insert the words "whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships", and it also proposes the deletion of the words "on which the Family is founded" from Article 41.3.1. 

Article 41.1.1 currently reads as follows: 

"The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law." 

Article 41.3.1 currently reads as follows: 

"The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack." 

According to the Electoral Commission, the change means the constitutional protection of the Family would be given to both the Family based on marriage and the Family founded on "other durable relationships". 

The Family founded on marriage means the unit based on a marriage between two people without distinction as to their sex, and The Family founded on other durable relationships means a Family based on different types of committed and continuing relationships other than marriage. 

If a majority of the public votes no, the current Articles will remain unchanged. 

The Care Bill (Green coloured ballot paper) 

The Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023 proposes to delete Article 41.2 from the Constitution and insert an Article 42B with the following wording: 

"The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision." 

Article 41.2 currently reads as follows: 

1. 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. 

2. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home. 

If a majority of the public votes no, the current Articles 41.2.1 and 41.2.2 of the Constitution will remain the same. 

According to the Electoral Commission, this means Article 41.2 will continue to recognise the importance to the common good of the life of women within the home. 

It would also "continue to require the State to endeavour to ensure that mothers should not have to go out to work to the neglect of their 'duties in the home'". 

Article 41.2 has long been under contention since the ratification of the Irish Constitution by the people in 1937. 

In 2012, the Houses of the Oireachtas established the Convention on the Constitution - otherwise known as the Constitutional Convention - to consider possible changes to the Constitution. 

The Convention met over a period of 18 months between 2012 and 2014 and discussed 10 issues in total, including Article 41.2 and its recognition of women's role in the home. 

They recommended that Article 41.2 be made gender-neutral to include other carers both in the home and beyond the home, and that the State should provide "a reasonable level of support" to carers.  

The upcoming referendums will be held on March 8, 2024.