Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Coppinger for that question. I will address the timeline in terms of what the Government needs to do. The Taoiseach has made it clear that the Government is committed to a referendum, but there is a procedure that needs to be followed to ensure that becomes a reality. This is something the Government agreed as a three-step process some time ago. We agreed to set up a Citizens' Assembly, which did a very good job. Then we agreed that the recommendations from that process would go before an Oireachtas committee, which also did a very good job in debating, discussing and making recommendations. There was not unanimous agreement but there was majority agreement. The third part of the process that the Government committed to was consideration, following a debate in the Oireachtas, of the recommendations of that report and making a determination in terms of how a referendum should proceed and what question would be asked. We are moving through that process. We are now at the start of the third stage of it.

The timeline for procedural steps, compiled by the Department of Health, envisages a series of memoranda being submitted to Government in the period from late January to early March. Subject to Government approval of each memorandum in turn, it is proposed that a constitutional amendment Bill must be initiated and passed by both Houses during the period from March to mid-April. A referendum commission must also be established, subject to Government approval. Previous commissions have indicated that four months is required for such a commission to do its work properly. A referendum must be held not earlier than 30 days and not later than 90 days after the constitutional amendment Bill has passed the Houses of the Oireachtas and a polling day has been agreed.

Of course, in parallel we have committed to putting together at least the heads of legislation. The aim is to try to set a context around answering the question people will rightly ask if they are asked to vote either to remove a section of the Constitution or to replace the existing provision with something else. People will want to know what the reality will be after that in terms of legislative certainty. That is a question people will want answers to.

We are beginning a detailed debate in the House this evening. I do not think we should be drawing conclusions before that debate even starts, as Deputy Coppinger seems to be suggesting in terms of making commitments. The Government wants to hear what all parties and all contributors to the debate have to say. Then, the Government will have to make decisions around the Cabinet table in terms of how we proceed.

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