Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the first question, my preference, although it is not a strong one, is to hold the two referendums on the one day. The reason for this is that we all gave a commitment. At the beginning of the year the party leaders gave a commitment to the NGOs and those associated with the children's issue that we would hold the referendum within one year, if it was possible to do so, but it may not be. The members of the all-party committee are unanimous in the view that they need until the end of April or the other side of Easter to complete their work. A referendum Bill will then be required. We will have to see whether it is possible to link the two referendums.

After this week we will have a commitment to deal with the EU reform treaty by 1 January 2009. I will get formal advice from the Attorney General. It is obvious that there will have to be a referendum. We will talk to the Opposition leaders to see how the matter can be progressed. I think we will deal with the two issues together, as we have all given a commitment to the children's NGO group that we would hold that referendum within one year. We are also committed to dealing with the EU reform treaty by 2009.

I have no other proposals to be dealt with in the short term and, therefore, do not expect any other referendum to be held in 2008. The Seanad issue has been outstanding for some time. If I recall correctly, a number of things can be done without holding a referendum. For example, we could deal with the issue of the university panels. A referendum was held on the issue approximately 20 years ago, but the decision was never implemented. A referendum has been held to allow us deal with the graduate electoral panel. A number of other issues do not require a referendum to be held.

I have extensive data for the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, usually the subject of a separate question. A number of issues raised by the committee have either been dealt with by referendum or legislation. There are others, on which, for one reason or another, different resolutions were made. I would rather deal with the committee as the subject of a separate question when we would have extensive reports from Departments and the various conclusions of the committee would be dealt with across Departments.

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