Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I would like to ask the Taoiseach three questions. I will be happy to speak to him about his views on fixing a timescale for this process. It is important that we get a fix on it. It will be difficult for the committee to do its work within a tight timescale. I am not sure it will be able to produce a report, a wording for the referendum and legislation to give effect to the referendum by May or June. The committee will do its work constructively, obviously. People might prefer to have the referendum in May. The Government needs to decide whether to have the two referendums separately or together. If the Taoiseach informs the committee that it is his intention to hold the two referendums together, the attention of the committee can be focused on doing its work so that the Bill and the wording can be quickly drafted and approved. Alternatively, if the referendum is to be held on its own as a single issue of EU reform, the Government should decide whether to hold it before or after the summer. I would like to know this because Fine Gael, in its strong support for the EU reform treaty, wishes to lay out a work schedule for the referendum campaign, including public meetings, information seminars and dissemination of facts, without it being wasted by being held too early in the year. I am sure the Taoiseach can understand my concern in this regard.

Complacency and confusion are the two great enemies of the EU reform treaty. I would not underestimate the scale of the challenge that faces everybody who supports the treaty in putting it to the people in such a way that they can decide for themselves on the issue of approval. Could the Taoiseach elaborate on his mindset with regard to the timing of this referendum?

The treaty is to be signed on Thursday in Lisbon. I understand from speaking to my counterparts in Brussels in the EEP grouping that a timescale will be set for the national governments to ratify the treaty. In other words, the various countries will decide for themselves the dates upon which they will ratify the treaty by parliamentary majority or parliamentary decision. I understand that they want the treaty to be ratified by a number of countries in their respective parliaments before the referendum is held in Ireland, following which it can be ratified in other countries. From the point of view of the Heads of Government, does the Taoiseach have a timescale in this regard? Have the other Government leaders been in contact with the Taoiseach indicating their views on when they would like to ratify the treaty, which will have an impact on when Ireland decides to put the case to the people?

Last week I raised the matter of the referendum on children's rights. Everybody is of the opinion that we should work assiduously in trying to obtain the best wording for this referendum. A view I articulated in Maynooth some weeks ago was that we should underpin that structure in the Constitution with a court structure dedicated to family matters. At the moment there is confusion among the District, Circuit and High Courts with regard to family law cases. These cases are often left to the end and there is no built-in mediation process. I fully appreciate that the work of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children is ongoing in conjunction with the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Smith. Would the Taoiseach support the principle of a dedicated system of family courts, employing trained judges and a mediation process, in which 80% to 90% of family law cases are dealt with before reaching the general court system, as is the case in other countries?

A referendum in its own right would be required to give constitutional authority to the work of such courts, but I do not want the Taoiseach to get the impression that I am aiming to have that referendum on the same day as the others. However, would he accept in principle that if we amend the Constitution in the matter of children's rights, we should underpin that right with a dedicated court structure focusing entirely on family law and children's issues, with trained judges and a mediation process?

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