Flanagan backs wholesale removal of divorce time limit from Constitution

Flanagan backs wholesale removal of divorce time limit from Constitution

Charlie Flanagan

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has said he would support removing reference to the time period before a court can grant a divorce from the Constitution altogether, The Times reports.

A referendum is expected to take place next year to reform article 41.3.2 of the Constitution, which has remained unchanged since the 1995 referendum which legalised divorce in Ireland.

Minister Josepha Madigan, a qualified solicitor and family mediator, won support from the Government for her proposals to relax the time period from four years to two.

However, it is not yet clear whether the referendum will simply revise the time period or remove the matter from the Constitution entirely.

Mr Flanagan told journalists at the Politics Needs Women conference in Dublin: “My personal preference would be to remove reference to a time frame within the constitution entirely, but I am conscious that we need political preferences and that is why I am in listening mode. I am listening to the views of other parties, listening to my own party, and I will make a proposal within a matter of weeks.”

Adding that he wanted the referendum to coincide with the local and European elections in May, he said: “That means in order to set to up the referendum commission and the appropriate machinery we would have to act pretty smartly early in the new year.”

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