Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The role of the parliamentary liaison unit is to ensure that dialogue and so on take place on the implementation of the Government’s legislative programme. Part of the agreed Government legislative programme is a referendum to enshrine water in public ownership in the Constitution. This is a matter of considerable public debate. A mass movement defeated water charges and in the aftermath, the Government said there would be no problem about having a referendum and that we would have public ownership of water. It is six years since Deputy Joan Collins first introduced her Bill to enshrine water in public ownership in the Constitution. That is deliberately bogged down in Committee Stage. It has been a few months since the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage said we should not worry and that we would have a referendum this year or early next year. For the water workers, who are due to transfer from councils across the country to Irish Water on 1 January, that is not good enough. From their point of view, they have no guarantee that Irish Water will not be privatised in the future and they are being transferred over to a company that is a semi-State company now but could be privatised in the future, unless there is a referendum. They want a date. When will the referendum on the public ownership of water take place?

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