Maverick Mary fights the good fight for the children [Independent.ie]
- Published: 25 April 2010
'Invidious" is an unusual word. It means "tending to arouse ill will, animosity or resentment". Admittedly, I had to look it up when I heard Minister for Children Barry Andrews use it in connection with a proposed date for the mirage-in-the-distance that is the Children's Referendum.
But "invidious" it is, according to the minister, to set a timescale for the referendum that was initially promised by Bertie Ahern as far back as April 2007. He said this last February, when the final report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection was published.
But then Mary O'Rourke rolled in last week and loudly insisted that a date be set for this referendum.
O'Rourke, who chaired the cross-party committee which produced the report, said: "We honoured the task that we were given. Now I hope that Government is going to honour the task it told the electorate it was going to do."
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