The Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023 proposed to replace a reference to women's "life within the home" and a constitutional obligation to "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" with a gender-neutral article on supporting care within the family.

[7] In July 2018, Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan announced the intention of the government to hold a referendum deleting Article 41.2 from the Constitution.

However, a decision of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality to schedule pre-legislative hearings meant there was insufficient time to prepare a bill for the proposed October 2018 date.

[12][13] On 8 March 2023, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar marked International Women's Day by announcing the government's intention to hold a referendum in November 2023 to enshrine gender equality in the Constitution by amending Articles 40 and 41.

[22] The bills were presented to the Dáil by Roderic O'Gorman, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, on 8 December 2023.

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.

[49][56] The Electoral Commission granted Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the Green Party and Ireland First status as approved bodies for the referendum campaign.

[59][60][61][62][63] Mary McAleese, a former president of Ireland, and Sinéad Gibney, who had resigned the previous day as the chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, addressed an event hosted by Treoir and One Family to call for Yes votes in both referendums.

[70] McDowell argued that a person could seek to resist deportation on the grounds of a durable relationship if the Family amendment was approved.

"[72] A march held in Dublin on 3 February 2024 calling for a No vote in both referendums was attended by around 100 people including Senator Sharon Keogan.

[74][75] Both Independent Living Movement Ireland and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties criticised the wording of the Care amendment but neither organisation campaigned against it.

[80] The Presbyterian Church in Ireland released a statement that said "The ambiguity and lack of clarity contained within some of the amendments will mean that it is unlikely to introduce meaningful change, which could have been of benefit to society as a whole.

The proposed amendment, which seeks to remove the link between marriage and family, is also disappointing, but is an indication of Ireland’s changing culture.

"[81] Imam Hussein Halawa of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland stated he did not believe there is a need to amend the Constitution but stopped short of calling for a vote either way.

Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin in the Church of Ireland, declined to make a statement citing the level of debate around the term "durable".

[82] The day before the referendum, The Ditch, an online news site, published an article containing leaked advice from Attorney General Rossa Fanning to Roderic O'Gorman on the proposed Care amendment.

The Leader of the Opposition Mary Lou McDonald said that the government had "come up short in terms of the caring wording" and that there had been a "lack of clarity", but insisted that her party was still "very much" in touch with the public.

Reasons for voting No in the Care referendum included vague or poor wording, and concerns about government responsibility and support for carers.

Some media outlets linked this decision to the failure of both referendums; however, Green Party leader, Eamon Ryan said he did not believe it was the "defining reason" for the resignation.