Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

On those matters, there are no proposals for a referendum. It is safe to assume that there will not be referendums on any of those issues in the lifetime of the Government.

On the referendum on children's rights, the report of the all-party committee was published on 16 February and recommended that there should be a constitutional amendment on the rights of the child. The expectation was that the referendum would have been held last summer. The Taoiseach deferred holding the referendum because he did not want to hold the by-elections with it. The Chief Whip told us when we debated the moving of the writs on the by-elections last week that they would be held towards the end of the first quarter of next year. Does the Taoiseach expect that the referendum on the rights of children will be held on the same day?

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