Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not proposed to hold a referendum in respect of a right to water being enshrined in the Constitution. We live in a democracy and as far as I understand, no party or individual in the House favours privatisation of our water system. Any party that decides it does favour privatisation can put in its manifesto that it stands for this.

The Fine Gael Party does not stand for it; the Labour Party does not stand for it; the Fianna Fáil Party does not stand for it; the Sinn Féin Party does not stand for it and I understand, given the range of views among the Technical Group and Independents, that they do not stand for it either. Therefore, it is not going to arise that there will be any question of privatisation of the water system in Ireland.

What I said was that when the Government had considered the reports and decided whether there should be a referendum on each of them, we would come back and discuss them at that stage. The reason there are so many reports outstanding is that there is quite a range of complicated work to be done in different Departments arising from the considerations that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention actually made. I have outlined the ones we have announced - that is, propositions for referendums on marriage equality, on reducing the voting age to 16, on reducing the eligible age for candidates in presidential elections from 21, and on the unified patent court. Most of these are from the people themselves in that the requests have come through the Constitutional Convention. The intention would be to hold a number of referendums on the one day, as I do not believe we can have a series of referendums, one after the other, each month. I take Deputy Micheál Martin's point about the importance of the marriage equality referendum. I hope to be able to stand over the discussions on the remaining reports in this session and to bring forward the legislation to give effect to the referendums that the Government will actually decide to hold, some of which are mentioned here, and deal with it in that way.

It is a fact that people are entitled to water and, in a democracy, where that water is supplied through an infrastructure provided by the State or, in previous times, by the local authorities, they are entitled to look for a contribution in respect of the cost of provision of that water which is fair and affordable.

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