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class="MsoNormal">The proposed children’s rights referendum will take centre stage at the Parliamentary Labour Party meeting in Kildare today.

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class="MsoNormal">The Fine Gael Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald is to visit the gathering to explain to TDs and Senators the work done on the referendum.

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class="MsoNormal">It has been promised for years but the message from Minister Fitzgerald is that a referendum on children’s rights will now be held in the coming months.

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class="MsoNormal">The Children’s Minister will bring that message to the Parliamentary Labour Party meeting in Kildare today having already addressed her Fine Gael colleagues.

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class="MsoNormal">She is expected to bring a proposal on the wording for the referendum before a Cabinet meeting this evening.

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class="MsoNormal">Some – including a former Supreme Court Judge – have questioned the need for the referendum at all.

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class="MsoNormal">But Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin who worked on the issue in opposition says it is needed.

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class="MsoNormal">Today Labour will also look at education reform, the rollout of the national broadband scheme and their tactics for the new Dáil session.

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