Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 6, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “Referendum on the right to water

5.The Minister shall, not later than 2 months after the passing of this Act, lay a report before the Oireachtas Committee that—

(a)proposes the wording for a referendum on the public ownership of water infrastructure,

(b)sets out a timeline for the referendum, and

(c)sets out in detail all other key considerations.”.

These amendments are virtually identical other than for the space of one month. As the Minister of State knows, we have been making a strong case for the Government to provide more information on its intention regarding holding a referendum to enshrine public ownership of the water system in the Constitution. The Minister of State outlined his position a few hours ago and will do so again now to say that he is dependent on the outcome of the report of the Commission on Housing and whether it recommends enshrining the right to housing in the Constitution, and then on whether the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, brings forward a proposal to Cabinet to hold two referendums next year, namely, one on water and one on housing. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is on record as saying he wants to do this and we take him at his word. Our problem is that we know that Fine Gael currently does not support such a proposition. We know this from our discussions at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage concerning these referendums and other public comments.

The logic of these amendments therefore is to ensure that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is not able to disappear into the wilderness on foot of the Commission on Housing's report in November and avoid responding. It is reasonable, therefore, whether in the context of the one month Deputy Cian O'Callaghan has suggested or the two months contained in my amendment, that there is a requirement in this legislation that the Minister lays before the House a report on precisely this issue. I suspect the Minister of State is not going to support this amendment, but we are going to press it.

The trade unions that represent water services' workers, Unite, Fórsa, SIPTU and others, recently launched what I thought was a good initiative. Historically, we have had many divisions and battles over water in the political process and the trade union movement, but now all the unions have united and made a simple call for the Government to name the date for the referendum. Having a requirement in this legislation for such a report within the restricted time limit we have outlined will help to build this momentum and make it a little bit more difficult for some of the participants in the Government who are less willing to proceed with something I think is hugely important.

Why is this important? It is important because one of the biggest public movements in recent history in this State was the Right2Water campaign. Its central premise was that people should have access to water based on need and not on ability to pay. This is one of the primary reasons that we are one of the only EU member states with zero water poverty. There is always the concern, though, that a Government, whether this one or one in the future, would jeopardise this record and seek to privatise water services. Having public ownership of water services enshrined in the Constitution is the strongest and best way to prevent this from happening. This is, therefore, an important amendment and I look forward to the response from the Minister of State.

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