Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

----- which are amendments Nos. 4 and 9. They were specifically in relation to not commencing sections of the Bill until such a time as there is a date for a referendum on the maintaining the water infrastructure in public ownership. They were ruled out of order on the basis that they represented a cost to the Exchequer and on the basis that they were not pertinent to the Bill. However, the Bill specifically says that it is to implement recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Future funding of Domestic Water Services and the very first recommendation of that committee was that a referendum should be held on public ownership. I cannot understand why my amendments are not pertinent to the Bill. Furthermore, considering there will be seven or eight referendums in the next couple of years, I cannot see why this one would be a cost to the Exchequer if it was held on the same day as some of the others. I have an issue with why it is being ruled out of order, particularly when it was the first recommendation on which we all agreed. We did not agree on many things in that committee but we were all agreed that there should be a referendum on maintaining the infrastructure in public ownership.

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