Professor Fiona de Londras:

On whether the Legislature would be slow to depart from legislation published in tandem with a referendum proposal but not entrenched in the Constitution, the answer is likely to be "yes" because there would likely be a sense that this is what people understood themselves to be voting for. The distinction between the constitutional referendum and the law is not always at the forefront of one's mind when voting in the ballot box. Nevertheless, the ordinary processes of politics, such as protest, representation, changes in scientific knowledge, hard cases or whatever, would be processed by the Oireachtas in the ordinary way. It would then be for the Houses to determine how comfortable they were with departing from the proposed legislative provision.

As to whether we should say that the Oireachtas may legislate or that it must or shall legislate, again that is a matter for the committee. If a referendum were held and passed with a clear, democratic and political expectation of legislation, I imagine the Members of these Houses would feel politically obliged to proceed with legislating.