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

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about the upcoming strike by water workers across the country in many different local authorities. These workers are due to strike on 7 and 8 June after voting overwhelmingly in favour of strike action. This comes after the very impressive rank-and-file activism of the water service workers pushing for these ballots. There are two fundamental issues here. One is the fact that these workers' pay, rostered overtime and allowances are not being red-circled in the event that they say they do not want to transfer to Irish Water but wish to stay with their local authorities. The second issue is their fear of the future privatisation of Irish Water if they do transfer to it. As the referendum these workers and the people were promised has not been delivered and as we do not have a guarantee that Irish Water will not be privatised in the future, when will we have a referendum with meaningful wording that enshrines public ownership of water in the Constitution?

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