'Our laws and supports haven’t caught up with how people live their lives'

The definition of a family based on marriage in the constitution is no longer suitable, Labour leader says

Alan Kelly said there were 150,000 people cohabiting in the 2016 Census, with 75,000 of them living with children. Picture: Rollingnews.ie

Alan Kelly, the Labour leader, was holding up a little blue book on the floor of the Dáil’s current home in the National Convention Centre.

It was a copy of Bunreacht na hEireann, the 1937 Irish Constitution produced by Eamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil government.

Kelly pointed to the definition of the family in Article 41 of the constitution which states that: “The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority, ...