FNV members to vote on pension deal, finally agreed after nine years

DutchNews, June 5, 2019

Ministers, unions and employers have reached a deal on reforming the Dutch pension system, nine years after talks first started. 

The agreement, which still has to be voted on by members of the FNV trade union federation, involves a slowdown in the planned increase in the state pension age and gives workers the option to retire early – both of which were key union demands. 

The new deal involves freezing the state retirement age at 66 years and four months for the next two years. After that it will increase in increments until it hits 67 in 2024. 

Then onwards, the state pension age will continue to rise in line with increases in life expectancy – based on an eight month increase for every year we live longer. 

The talks had broken down last November when the unions walked out but resumed earlier this week after ministers indicated some compromises were on the table. 

For example, ministers have agreed to bring in some form of early retirement scheme which is aimed at people doing heavy physical work but which is open to everyone. 

The scheme is most attractive to people on low incomes. Employers will have to pay a fine if workers earning more than €19,000 a year quit early. The money, ministers say, will compensate for the loss of premium and tax income. 

It will also be easier for the self-employed to join a pension fund, but it will not be compulsory. 

Insurance 

However, freelancers will be required by law to take out insurance against becoming unable to work through illness. This, commentators say, was one the demands made by GroenLinks and the social democratic party PvdA in return for their support in steering the deal through the senate. 

There may be an opt-out for people who show they have sufficient reserves to support themselves. Currently just 20% of freelancers have such a policy, and the cost runs into hundreds of euros a month. 

More details about this part of the agreement are due in the coming days. 

Fund changes 

Pension funds will also have the option of offering employees two sorts of pensions – one in which the premium varies in line with interest rates and one in which funds can take more risk – and spread that risk over all participants, broadcaster NOS said. 

Although employers organisations and smaller unions have backed the new plan outright, the FNV has said it is up to the members to decide whether or not to support the new deal.

Chairman Han Busker said he expects a ‘tough discussion’ with members but said the agreement as it now stands is ‘justifiable’.

Rutte turns Brexit into ‘parable of the fragile vase’ in pre-election missive

DutchNews, December 17, 2018

Prime minister Mark Rutte has invoked the ‘chaos’ of Brexit as a cautionary tale of what could happen to the Netherlands if it neglects its political traditions of coalitions and compromise. 

In an ‘open letter’, published as a full-page advert in the AD newspaper, Rutte likens the country’s prosperity to a precious vase. ‘That possession is brittle and fragile. It can easily break.’ 

He goes on: ‘We have seen examples of societies where they dropped the vase. Look at Great Britain. The politicians and people there have forgotten what they achieved together. Now they’re in chaos.’ 

The letter is published four months before Dutch voters choose new provincial assemblies, which will in turn determine the make-up of the new Senate in May. If, as expected, the coalition government loses its one-seat majority in the upper house, it will need to seek support from opposition parties for its legislative programme. 

Rutte cites the recent demonstrations against Zwarte Piet, the blackface character who plays second fiddle to St Nicholas in the traditional December parades, as an example of a situation where things ‘almost went wrong.’ ‘People yelling so hard for or against Zwarte Piet that they lost sight of the children.’ 

In fact talks have been ongoing behind the scenes between parties for several years on how to modernise the appearance of Zwarte Piet. The vast majority of arrests during this year’s Sinterklaas parades were for people attacking anti-Piet demonstrations. 

Rutte wrote: ‘I hardly ever get everything I want. Usually I make compromises and water down my demands, because I always feel I have a responsibility to keep the vase intact.’ 

He described others who refused to compromise and work together as ‘people who grip the vase so tightly that it breaks.’ 

The fragmentation of Dutch politics, which saw 13 parties win seats in parliament at the last general election in 2017, has led to concerns that the ‘poldermodel’ of governing by compromise is coming under intolerable strain. 

The recent breakdown of talks between employers and unions to reform the pension system further underlined the perception that decision making is becoming more difficult. The negotiations to form the current four-party cabinet last year lasted an unprecedented seven months and gave the government a single-seat majority in both houses. At local government level this year’s coalition talks lasted two weeks longer than in 2014. 

Rutte struck a more combative tone the last time he used the open letter format ahead of the 2017 election, when his VVD party was trying to overhaul Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam PVV in the polls. He was criticised for telling people to ‘act normal or go away’ in comments that were seen to belittle concerns about racism.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned the Netherlands on Monday against emulating the "chaos" and division of Britain's decision to leave the European Union https://t.co/GGMSvXTqVW

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 17, 2018

Related Articles

Binding referendums one way to boost trust in Dutch political system

Senate opens door to elected mayors, D66 celebrate win


“Oneness” + “Wisdom” + “The Core Truths”, Delphi University, McCaysville Georgia - US (3), July7-8, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - ("Wisdom" - Text version) - New 

".... The Practical

What can you take away from this discussion of a new kind of wisdom? It will start changing the way everything works, and that may be fearful to some. Change is that way. It starts to change everyday life and things that have been the same for eons. It starts to morph "normal" into something else.

This new, evolving Human nature will affect the way you do business. Business leadership will start to understand that employees are true Human resources and are the most valuable things that exist on the planet. Therefore, they are more family than workers, and there must be caring in the workplace. The bottom line for new business will be a combination of financial outcome and how the "family" is doing who work in the company. What can management do to make the "work experience" more peaceful and productive for all those who work there? Large corporations will become large families, and workers may never want to leave because they are taken care of in many ways. Is this some kind of a Pollyanna, pie-in-the-sky dream? Dear ones, it's already here in some cultures.

What would wisdom look like in politics? We have covered this before, but some need to hear it again. There will come a day when if one candidate will criticize another in a non-ethical way, you'll drop them. You will do it because this will show you who they really are. If one candidate speaks harshly of their opponent and calls them unkind names, you'll drop them. Unkindness is a transparent window for you to see into their personality, and the public will be repelled by it. Voters will expect integrity, honesty, compassion and kindness, even within the heat of disagreement of ideas. Suddenly there will be the evolvement of the political process, and one side will not have to slaughter the other one in order to be understood or to win. Winning through misinformation will be seen as dishonest and unacceptable.

That's going to change the way politicians campaign, dear ones, and it’s coming. You'll find that they can't be nice enough to each other! However, when the public starts changing what they expect, many old politicians will react and try to match that expectation in order to be elected. But if it’s fake, you'll see through that, too. On a public stage, a Human can’t pretend to be kind and compassionate if it’s not who they actually are. Reality shows quickly.

The first time you have a contest where two or more candidates come along with compassion and mean it, and really like their opponents, it will be such a breath of fresh air for you! You will actually start listening to opposing ideas and won’t concentrate on the negative. You will see the difference and realize it’s a real game changer. It's going to change who is elected. Because the one who is elected will then go on to expect integrity from those she/he works with beneath them in the leadership role. It's going to change everything because it comes from that which is not the heart, but a DNA that is evolving. Compassion will be the new gold standard. ... "

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

The Unthinkable… Politics, A Review

Humans will begin to search for integrity and fairness and it's going to happen in the places you never expect. I said this last week, so this is a review. There'll come a time when you will demand this of your politics - fairness and integrity. So when the candidates start calling each other names, you will turn your back on them and they won't get any votes. They're going to get the point real fast, don't you think? How about that?

Let me give you another potential. This country that I sit in right now [USA] will set the mold for that particular attribute. I have no clock. Watch for the youngsters to set this in motion, and they will, for they are the voters of tomorrow and they do not want the energy of today. To some of them, it's so abominable they won't even register to vote in this energy. You're going to see this soon. That was number five.. ..."

"You Don’t Know How the Frog Jumps"–  Jan11, 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“…  Last week, I gave you a message about the potentials of 2011. And there were those in this room who attended. I'm going to repeat something I said there, for you need to hear it and it has to do with politics. It would seem intuitive to every single Human Being in the room that in order to accomplish what you do as Americans in Congress, you must have at least two parties. For that is the way it has always been - the red and the blue.

What if I told you that there will come a time when there will be no parties? You might then say, "Well, that's impossible, Kryon, because you're not Human and you don't know how funding works." You might say, "It has to be a party that creates the power to raise money for the ones who cannot, and then the funding is spread around and this is the way we work. If you didn't have parties, you'd have no funding. Nobody could advertise, and no one could get elected."

Oh, really?

Are you aware right now, that you have a president who was elected on the Internet? He figured it out. When everybody can talk to everyone, you have plenty of funding. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. You talk to millions at the same time, they talk to millions at the same time. It's a new paradigm of communication. The young people know all about it, and you can't stop it. Watch for more from this new paradigm.

It is worldwide communication, one person at a time. It doesn't matter how many laws you pass, and it doesn't matter what you decide about who is in charge of it, you can't stop it. It's out of the bag now, and the communities of the young are going to be communicating. This is how the politicians are going to be communicating to you, literally coming into your home in a holographic form perhaps, explaining their position one by one, without a party. Then you will elect them to your Congress without a party and they will sit in the chairs without a division and there will be no such thing as the "other side of the aisle."

And that, Human Being, is called unity and there is a paradigm that you cannot even imagine. And it's in the works. And then you'll have a Congress that works together and gets things done without the current duality.  ….”

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

Binding referendums one way to boost trust in Dutch political system

DutchNews, December 13, 2018

Photo: DutchNews.nl 

The Dutch parliamentary system is outdated and urgent action needs to be taken to ensure a large percentage of the population again feel represented, according to a government commission set up to look at reforms. 

The commission, under the leadership of Noord-Holland king’s commissioner Johan Remkes, has been studying the situation for two years and concludes that updates to the current electoral system are needed. 

The last major overhaul took place in 1917 when universal suffrage for men was introduced. Since then, people have become richer, better educated and better informed, the commission says. 

However, the gap between the well-educated and low-skilled has become wider, the country is more culturally diverse and people are more likely to speak their mind due to digitalisation, the commission said. 

The low-skilled in particular do not feel that they are being heard and that their interests are not being taken into account in decision-making, and in the long term ‘that is worrying’, Remkes said. 

The commission has made a number of recommendations to close the gap in society and make parliament more accountable. These include: 

• The introduction of a binding, corrective referendum for new legislation, with a ‘no’ vote from 33% of the electorate required to have laws scrapped. 
• More emphasis on preference voting in the national elections, perhaps with an element of regional representation. 
• The person who leads coalition formation talks should be elected, not appointed 
• May 5 (Liberation Day) should be a public holiday 

Ministers will respond to the proposals in the coming months. Home affairs minister Kajsa Ollongren said in an initial reaction that the cabinet would take up the challenge and that she hoped for a broad public debate.

Related Articles:

Senate opens door to elected mayors, D66 celebrate win


“Oneness” + “Wisdom” + “The Core Truths”, Delphi University, McCaysville Georgia - US (3), July7-8, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - ("Wisdom" - Text version) - New 

".... The Practical

What can you take away from this discussion of a new kind of wisdom? It will start changing the way everything works, and that may be fearful to some. Change is that way. It starts to change everyday life and things that have been the same for eons. It starts to morph "normal" into something else.

This new, evolving Human nature will affect the way you do business. Business leadership will start to understand that employees are true Human resources and are the most valuable things that exist on the planet. Therefore, they are more family than workers, and there must be caring in the workplace. The bottom line for new business will be a combination of financial outcome and how the "family" is doing who work in the company. What can management do to make the "work experience" more peaceful and productive for all those who work there? Large corporations will become large families, and workers may never want to leave because they are taken care of in many ways. Is this some kind of a Pollyanna, pie-in-the-sky dream? Dear ones, it's already here in some cultures.

What would wisdom look like in politics? We have covered this before, but some need to hear it again. There will come a day when if one candidate will criticize another in a non-ethical way, you'll drop them. You will do it because this will show you who they really are. If one candidate speaks harshly of their opponent and calls them unkind names, you'll drop them. Unkindness is a transparent window for you to see into their personality, and the public will be repelled by it. Voters will expect integrity, honesty, compassion and kindness, even within the heat of disagreement of ideas. Suddenly there will be the evolvement of the political process, and one side will not have to slaughter the other one in order to be understood or to win. Winning through misinformation will be seen as dishonest and unacceptable.

That's going to change the way politicians campaign, dear ones, and it’s coming. You'll find that they can't be nice enough to each other! However, when the public starts changing what they expect, many old politicians will react and try to match that expectation in order to be elected. But if it’s fake, you'll see through that, too. On a public stage, a Human can’t pretend to be kind and compassionate if it’s not who they actually are. Reality shows quickly.

The first time you have a contest where two or more candidates come along with compassion and mean it, and really like their opponents, it will be such a breath of fresh air for you! You will actually start listening to opposing ideas and won’t concentrate on the negative. You will see the difference and realize it’s a real game changer. It's going to change who is elected. Because the one who is elected will then go on to expect integrity from those she/he works with beneath them in the leadership role. It's going to change everything because it comes from that which is not the heart, but a DNA that is evolving. Compassion will be the new gold standard. ... "

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

The Unthinkable… Politics, A Review

Humans will begin to search for integrity and fairness and it's going to happen in the places you never expect. I said this last week, so this is a review. There'll come a time when you will demand this of your politics - fairness and integrity. So when the candidates start calling each other names, you will turn your back on them and they won't get any votes. They're going to get the point real fast, don't you think? How about that?

Let me give you another potential. This country that I sit in right now [USA] will set the mold for that particular attribute. I have no clock. Watch for the youngsters to set this in motion, and they will, for they are the voters of tomorrow and they do not want the energy of today. To some of them, it's so abominable they won't even register to vote in this energy. You're going to see this soon. That was number five.. ..."

"You Don’t Know How the Frog Jumps"–  Jan11, 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“…  Last week, I gave you a message about the potentials of 2011. And there were those in this room who attended. I'm going to repeat something I said there, for you need to hear it and it has to do with politics. It would seem intuitive to every single Human Being in the room that in order to accomplish what you do as Americans in Congress, you must have at least two parties. For that is the way it has always been - the red and the blue.

What if I told you that there will come a time when there will be no parties? You might then say, "Well, that's impossible, Kryon, because you're not Human and you don't know how funding works." You might say, "It has to be a party that creates the power to raise money for the ones who cannot, and then the funding is spread around and this is the way we work. If you didn't have parties, you'd have no funding. Nobody could advertise, and no one could get elected."

Oh, really?

Are you aware right now, that you have a president who was elected on the Internet? He figured it out. When everybody can talk to everyone, you have plenty of funding. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. You talk to millions at the same time, they talk to millions at the same time. It's a new paradigm of communication. The young people know all about it, and you can't stop it. Watch for more from this new paradigm.

It is worldwide communication, one person at a time. It doesn't matter how many laws you pass, and it doesn't matter what you decide about who is in charge of it, you can't stop it. It's out of the bag now, and the communities of the young are going to be communicating. This is how the politicians are going to be communicating to you, literally coming into your home in a holographic form perhaps, explaining their position one by one, without a party. Then you will elect them to your Congress without a party and they will sit in the chairs without a division and there will be no such thing as the "other side of the aisle."

And that, Human Being, is called unity and there is a paradigm that you cannot even imagine. And it's in the works. And then you'll have a Congress that works together and gets things done without the current duality.  ….”

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

Senate opens door to elected mayors, D66 celebrate win

DutchNews, November 20, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

The Dutch senate has voted in favour of a plan to remove the way mayors are named from the constitution, a measure which clears the way for the introduction of elected mayors. 

The measure, proposed by coalition party D66, managed to win the necessary two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional change. Senators from the Labour party, the fundamentalist Christian SGP and the independent OSF voted against the move. 

Currently mayors in the Netherlands are technically crown appointees and nominated by the local authority they will represent after behind-the-scenes meetings. 

The door is now open to some form of elected mayor, either by a straight vote in the municipality or, for example, by allowing the biggest party on the council to fill the role. 

Earlier this month the Volkskrant reported that while support for the Labour party (PvdA) may have collapsed at last year’s general election, the party continues to dominate when it comes to new mayoral and other official appointments. 

So far this year, 11 Labour party supporters have been named as mayors, the same number as for the right-wing Liberal VVD and well above the number of D66 (7) and CDA (6) appointments. 

The issue of how to elect mayors is likely to be a dominant theme in the run up to next March’s provincial council elections. In addition, D66 leader Rob Jetten will use it to show that his party is in favour of administrative renewal, despite voting to phase out advisory referendums.

Alexander Pechtold quits as D66 leader, after 12 years at the top

DutchNews, October 6, 2018

Alexander Pechtold leaves the stage after his announcement. Photo: Marcel
Krijgsman / Hollandse Hoogte

D66 leader Alexander Pechtold is standing down as head of the party and will quit as an MP on Tuesday, he told delegates to the party congress on Saturday. 

There has been mounting speculation that Pechtold would leave after 12 years in the job. He has recently been at the centre of two separate scandals, one involving the gift of an apartment and the other his ex girlfriend. 

Pechtold told delegates in his final speech as party leader: ‘I am leaving the stage’. He said he had one aim when he took over the top job in 2006, and that was to get D66 into government. ‘I have given everything. It is time for new leadership,’ he said. 

The party, he said, has managed to achieve many of its ideals in the past years and there are now a number of D66 mayors around the country. He admitted D66 is not doing well in the opinion polls at the moment but said: ‘I am convinced that people will again see that a vote for us is a valuable vote. Because don’t forget, we are a stable, middle party, a government party.’ 

When Pechtold became party leader, D66 had just six seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament. It now has 19 but its popularity has plunged since joining the current centre-right coalition. 

New leader 

MPs will vote for a new parliamentary party leader on Tuesday but that person will not necessary replace Pechtold as national party leader, and several of the potential candidates for the job are not MPs. 

Home affairs minister Kajsa Ollongren and aid minister Sigrid Kaag are among the names being touted as Pechtold’s successor. The relatively young D66 MP Rob Jetten has also been mentioned, as has the party’s foreign affairs spokesman Sjoerd Sjoerdsma. 

An outside candidate is said to be Boris van der Ham, who resigned as an MP in 2012 and is now an actor, writer and chairman of the Dutch humanists association. 

Reactions 

Prime minister Mark Rutte said on Facebook that Pechtold is someone ‘you can always do business with. ‘Above all, he is a good colleague and extremely nice when it comes to personal contact,’ Rutte said.

Labour leader Lodewijk Asscher said Pechtoldhas ‘aways served democracy’. ‘I will miss the sharp debates… but most of all the pleasant cooperation,’ he said. 

Kees van der Staaij, leader of the fundamentalist Christian SGP, who disagrees with D66 on gay rights, euthanasia and organ donation, said Pechtold is a ‘thoroughbred politician’.

Ireland overturns abortion ban in landslide vote

Yahoo – AFP, Robin MILLARD, Julien LAGACHE, May 26, 2018

Yes campaigners rejoice ahead of the final result of a landmark referendum in which
Ireland voted by 66 percent to ditch its strict abortion laws (AFP Photo/Paul FAITH)

Dublin (AFP) - Ireland voted by a landslide to ditch its strict abortion laws in a landmark referendum that Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said had finally lifted decades of stigma and shame.

More than 66 percent of voters in what has been a traditionally staunchly Catholic country backed repealing the constitutional ban on terminations, triggering scenes of tearful jubilation in Dublin on Saturday after a divisive and often emotional campaign.

Hugging, celebrating, singing and cheering wildly, thousands crammed into the courtyard of Dublin Castle, where the official result was declared, chanting "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"Wonderful, wonderful, today is wonderful!" said 65-year-old Eileen Shields, who had been ostracised for falling pregnant outside of marriage when she was 18.

The crowds cheered and popped champagne corks as the result was announced. Women and men wearing "Repeal" tops and "Yes" badges waved Irish flags and placards reading "Thank you", with love hearts on.

Speaking through tears, Stasia Clancy, 64, said: "This is like an explosion of the repression and the suppression of the last 100 years."

At Dublin's RDS count centre, 40-year-old nurse Ruth Bowie wept at the results.

She told AFP: "I had to leave my country to get the healthcare that I needed when I was told that my baby wouldn't survive outside the womb and I've told my story over and over again just in the hope that this day would come -- and it's finally come."

Key facts on Ireland's abortion law (AFP Photo/Brice LE BORGNE)

'Veil of stigma lifted'

The final results of Friday's referendum showed 66.4 percent voted for removing the constitutional ban, while 33.6 voted against.

Some 1,429,981 votes were cast for Yes. The turnout was 64 percent.

Among the 40 constituencies, the pro-choice vote peaked at 78 percent in Dublin Bay South, while rural Donegal was the only one to vote against liberalising abortion, by 52 percent.

"A quiet revolution has taken place," Varadkar said in a speech at Dublin Castle.

"No more stigma. The veil of secrecy is lifted. No more isolation. The burden of shame is gone."

He said Saturday would be remembered as the day Ireland "stepped out from under the last of our shadows and into the light. The day we came of age as a country."

His government proposes allowing abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and between 12 and 24 weeks in exceptional circumstances.

Varadkar said he wanted the law in force by the end of the year and Health Minister Simon Harris told AFP that the cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve the drafting of legislation.

The crowds cheered and popped champagne corks as the result was 

announced (AFP Photo/Paul FAITH)

Crumbling church influence

The result is another hammer blow to the Roman Catholic Church's authority in Ireland, coming three years after referendum voters backed legalising same-sex marriage by 62 percent.

The Church's influence has crumbled in recent years due to a series of child sex abuse scandals.

The referendum comes three months before Pope Francis visits Ireland for the World Meeting of Families.

An exit poll for The Irish Times newspaper suggested 70 percent of women and 65 percent of men voted to overturn the ban.

People over 65 voted 60 percent against. However, all other age groups backed the proposal, with support at 87 percent among voters aged 18 to 24.

Ailbhe Smyth, 71, co-director of the official Together for Yes campaign, said real-life testimonies from women affected by the ban had helped swing the vote.

"The stories, the experiences, women's voices, women's and couples, it was a central part of our strategy," she told reporters.

The Love Both official pro-life campaign said regardless of the result, "our work will continue to protect unborn babies and their mothers".

Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar hailed the vote as a "quiet revolution" 

(AFP Photo/Paul FAITH)

"Our campaign does not end with the referendum, but when the government properly supports the mother and child," it said.

Abortion is still banned in some 20 countries worldwide, while others have highly restrictive laws in place. In the European Union, predominantly Catholic Malta is the only country with a total ban.

'The North is next'

Ireland introduced a constitutional ban on abortion following a 1983 referendum. Terminating a pregnancy carries a 14-year maximum jail term.

The law was tweaked in 2013 to allow terminations if the mother's life is at risk.

The ban has led to thousands of women travelling each year to neighbouring Britain, where terminations are legal, or increasingly turning to abortion pills sold online.

Since 1983, around 170,000 Irish women have gone abroad for terminations.

In the UK, abortion is legal on the British mainland, but remains outlawed in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein's party leaders from both sides of the border held up a placard at Dublin Castle reading: "The North is next".

Related Articles:

Health minister presses on with abortion pill plans, despite Christian opposition

Pope tells priests to pardon women who have abortions

Seven in 10 Dutch support abortion rights: survey

Campaigning for abortion rights in 1974. Photo: SPAARNESTAD Photo/NA/

Anefo/unknown photographer

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon, thank you for the many communications you have given. They have been enlightening in many ways. I hope this is not a rude question, but it is a subject that I have not seen addressed in the collection of Questions and Answers. I want to know: What is the morality of stopping someone's new life in the physical plane, by abortion? And what is the karma to the person who helps to accomplish an abortion? I think it will depend on when a Human life begins. When life begins is a moment that is very important to those who oppose abortion and those who say it is allowable.

Do you have a decisive response to guide those who receive your words?

Answer: [from Lee Carroll] We have tried to "paint" Kryon into a corner on this many times, since it really is an important issue in our society. Kryon says this: "Human life actually begins when the intent of the entities involved in the planning session is to create it." It's not a biological answer, and it won't please either side.

This places it far before any kind of biological morality decision. Kryon has said that there is no judgement in the choice of Humans... including this one. When it occurs, there is also no horrible karmic payback. But there IS energy created that affects everyone around the event. Sometimes these lives come and go to create lessons for those involved, then these terminated lives return almost immediately, often within the next pregnancy (sometimes changing gender). If there is no next pregnancy, often it's in a very close family group.

God is not in a vacuum concerning these things, and often they are set-ups, and are executed with the agreement of all parties in advance. This is far different than our society wishes to believe. They want to paint a black and white answer to when life occurs, and set rules on what you can and cannot do with it. Instead, Kryon's answer gives honor and validity to the fact that you are not here by accident, and the things that take place in your lives are not random. Not to mention the fact that your free choice is the free choice of God (since you are a piece of God).

So we leave the biological cultural decisions for those who wish to make them, but we have heard the spiritual answers many times... that these things are far more than they appear, and are all part of our spiritual setups, and they are honored.

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"... I want to define life for you - not biological life, but spiritual life. So for all those intellectuals, just hold on, for many won't like this. Spiritual life, as measured by Spirit, is when a Human has free choice. When is that? It's when they take their first breath. Not in utero. There will be those who will say, "That's wrong, that's wrong. The soul in the woman's body is alive!" Just wait. I'm talking about spiritually. That which Spirit sees, and it's when you come from the other side of the veil and take your first breath.

A child with the mother has no free choice. That child is linked to the choice of the mother until it is born. It is, indeed, a soul in preparation for free choice, and there are many attributes that are spiritual that we have discussed before about how that soul reacts. But now I'm discussing life with polarity [duality], free choice.

But let's discuss that "child inside" for a moment, for there is a process I want you to know about. I want to talk about 240 days into the pregnancy. At about that time, the child has perfect DNA. It hasn't taken its first breath. The DNA hasn't measured the energy of the planet yet, since it is contained. Did you realize that? Inside the womb is a perfect child. The child's DNA has all the attributes of the Akash and also the parent, but it's different in a way you have not been told. The DNA is 100% as designed.

The quantum instructions within the DNA are all talking to the biology of the child,, getting ready for the first breath. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)