Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have a specific date for the referendum on the eighth amendment. I intend it to be held in May or June. That is a tight timeline to achieve but I want to achieve it. Establishing or meeting this timeline is, of course, not entirely within my control or that of the Government. We are waiting, first, for the all-party Oireachtas committee to produce its report. It has set a deadline of 20 December. We will then need to agree wording for a referendum and, quite possibly, legislation which we may not need to enact but which we may need to publish. We then need to establish a referendum commission - or have a referendum Bill - and allow time for a campaign before the vote happens. That is the process by which a referendum occurs. I know Deputies already know this but for others outside the House reading the Official Report, there is probably no harm in putting on the record the fact that this it is not something which is solely within my control or that of the Government. It will require the co-operation of these Houses to meet the deadline I have set of May or June. I am very serious about meeting the deadlines. I hope and, indeed, I am confident that the committee will be able to come up with its report by 20 December, which is the next deadline that needs to be achieved.

The strategic communications unit has commissioned research. I do not know whether that involves focus groups but it definitely involves quantitative research. That was done by public tender and has already been discussed in this House. The unit is not independent; it is part of the Government and part of the Government's wider corporate communications and, therefore, it is not intended to be independent. It is intended to be a unit of the Government. I think I have already explained the role of the unit to the Deputy with regard to the recent controversy, which is none whatsoever. This is not what it does. It carries out information campaigns. It is not involved in day-to-day politics and, therefore, had no role at all in advising me or anyone else on the controversies of the past couple of weeks, in putting any information into the public domain or in concealing any information from the public because that is not the role of this unit, full stop.

I do not have a breakdown as to how the budget will work in the context of health. I know one of the matters that will be prioritised next year is the Healthy Ireland agenda in terms of trying to encourage people to lead healthier lives and make people more aware of Government action in this area probably starting with the anti-smoking campaign and running through to other things. Again, this is an area that is not just about the Department of Health; it is about other Departments as well. It is involves the Department of Education and Skills and what happens in schools and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in the context of sport and greenways. It makes a great deal of sense to approach Healthy Ireland and the campaign, with which I want to be very much associated and which I want to see us doing in respect of living in a healthier Ireland next year, as a cross-Government or whole-of-Government initiative and not just one that is just seen as a project of one Department.

See this speech in context