Mr. Ger Deering:

We agree with the strong focus that has been placed today on the need for information and clarity. Deputies Ó Snodaigh and Mulherin both made points about what appears on the ballot paper. As Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, it is actually decided by the Oireachtas in the context of the Bill that promotes the referendum. That governs what we are required to do from a legal perspective. As I said earlier, there is more openness with regard to the information that can be provided. There are two approaches to this. We will be interested to hear the views of the committee on them. One approach relates to information and the other approach relates to further clarification.

I emphasise that the Referendum Commission does not claim that its research, which is a very welcome opening salvo in this process, is definitive. We need to be very clear on the issues that are confusing people. It is important to note that resounding decisions have been made, in one direction or another, when other referendums have been held in similar areas. This tells us that it is not always necessary to focus on the language - we may need to look at other things as well. All we are saying is that the manner in which we proceed in this respect needs to be carefully considered.