Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Cabinet has agreed to hold two referendums on International Women's Day next year, although the detailed wording will have to be scrutinised. When is it intended to hold referendums on the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016 and the right to housing? The water in public ownership legislation has been buried on Committee Stage since March 2018. That is five and a half years we have been waiting for it to move on.

In a letter to me in November 2022, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, stated that he would bring forward definitive proposals to Cabinet in early 2023. We are now two weeks away from the end of the year. In the meantime, I am very concerned of the creeping privatisation of Uisce Éireann as it recently announced the appointment of Mott Macdonald, a management, engineering and development consultancy headquartered in the UK, on a five-year supplier framework for the provision of capital works, project management and office services. Does the Government intend to hold the referendum on water in public ownership before the next general election?

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