Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Deputy Shatter submitted detailed proposals on behalf of the Fine Gael Party to the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children by the date requested. The Government is not going to make a submission to the committee. However, Fianna Fáil Members on the committee are to make a submission, not on behalf of their party but rather on their own behalf as a group. We need to know whether a referendum relating to this matter will take place. There appears to have been a complete rowing back by the committee on this issue, which is of such extreme and sensitive importance that the Director of Public Prosecutions was forced to comment upon it.

The Government is not making a submission and neither is the Fianna Fáil Party. My understanding is that the members of Fianna Fáil who are serving on the committee are going to make a submission on their own behalf. Will the Tánaiste clarify the position and indicate whether a referendum is to take place?

See this speech in context