Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his plan for constitutional amendments. [19137/23]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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11. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his plan for constitutional amendments. [20420/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together.

As I announced on 8 March, the Government intends to hold a referendum in November this year on gender equality as recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and the Special Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality.

The decision to hold one or more referendums on this issue is in line with commitments in the programme for Government to respond to the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality. An interdepartmental group, led by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, was established in March and is working on the development of policy recommendations for consideration by the Government and wording for the proposed referendums.

There are various other proposals for further constitutional reforms under consideration. However, no final decisions have been made as yet on the timing for the holding of other referendums in respect of them. Some of these proposed reforms arise from the programme for Government, such as housing and extending the franchise at presidential elections to Irish citizens living outside the State, while others, such as the EU Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, arise from existing legal requirements.

The recent establishment of the Electoral Commission will help streamline the conduct of referendums and provide independent oversight.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The current programme for Government commits to the holding of referendums on housing and on extending the franchise at presidential elections to Irish citizens living outside of the State. While respecting the independence of the Housing Commission and acknowledging its members reported disagreement, surely some indication has been given to the Minister as to when he can expect a proposed wording for the referendum. Housing is the greatest challenge of this generation and the crisis is down to the failure of successive governments in not building public housing and in also handing too much responsibility over to the markets. A constitutional right to housing will not guarantee every person in the State a home but it would place an important legal obligation on this Government and on all future governments to realise progressively that right through their policies, laws and budgets. This is an important point.

There is even less certainty on extending presidential voting rights with the Minister, Deputy Coveney, indicating that this may only take place if the Government reaches its full term. What exactly is the delay on the Government side? The Taoiseach told us in the past month that there would be a window for constitutional change from November of this year so will this window include both referendums?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I welcome the Taoiseach’s commitment to hold the gender equality referendum in November. As the Taoiseach said, this is the referendum which was recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality and also recommended by our own special committee on gender equality which I had the honour of chairing. As the Taoiseach knows, in our report from December, Unfinished Democracy: Achieving Gender Equality, we recommended specific text for putting to the people by way of referendum to amend Articles 40 and 41 of the Constitution. The Taoiseach has pointed out that an interdepartmental group was established in March. Can the Taoiseach give the House a timeline on when the group is likely to recommend a final wording? Is this group actively considering the cross-party wording which we proposed? Also, are we likely to see a housing referendum held at the same time? I think the Taoiseach said that no decision has yet been made but I ask for some urgency in working on these proposals, particularly given that we have already seen a cross-party wording put forward by our special committee.

I welcome this commitment from the Taoiseach and I also specifically ask if he is committing to hold the referendum in respect of all three recommendations of the citizens’ assembly and of our own committee relating to both Articles 40 and 41.

On a related electoral matter, can the Taoiseach confirm whether the Irish Government has expressed a preference at EU level for the proposed date for European Parliament elections next year?

I understand 23 to 26 May would fit with when we have traditionally held such elections alongside our local elections but that 6 to 9 June is like to be the preferred outcome at European level. If the European Parliament elections are scheduled for that June period, will our local elections be held simultaneously or has a Government decision been made on that?

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Government is committed to a referendum on the most urgent issue of all in this country, namely the housing crisis. When will we know what that referendum is about?

Somebody who would like to know and to whom I want to give a shout-out to is Martin Leahy, an accomplished musician who has come to the gates of the Dáil every Thursday for one year to sing a song called “Everyone Should Have a Home”. He has performed at a number of cost-of-living and housing demonstrations organised by Raise the Roof and the Cost of Living Coalition. He is in a housing emergency situation. He has spent 25 years performing music and has played with some of Ireland’s greats, including John Spillane and Christy Moore. Like many others, he is caught in this dire housing crisis. Tomorrow, on the anniversary of his coming up from Cork, where he is from, every week to perform that song, it would be good for the Taoiseach to say something to people like him about the efforts they are making to appeal to him to take the radical action necessary to ensure everyone has the right to a home, as his song suggests.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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I have a simple question: will we get a constitutional referendum on neutrality? The Government likes to talk of the need for a public debate on neutrality. It has a ready-up system of forums on international security policy, led by a dame of the British Empire who has publicly come out in support of the US invasion of Afghanistan and US coups in Chile, Cuba and Nicaragua. The Tánaiste has spoken of the need for a debate that is not about a binary issue, so not neutrality or militarism, but some secret third thing, which I suspect is militarism and alignment, bit by bit, with NATO.

We disagree on this. There is no question that the Taoiseach would like to abandon neutrality, though he might not want to put it in those terms. Does he accept that the people should have the right to decide this and that any change to our policy of neutrality must be put to the people in a referendum? Our preferred option to do that is to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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We, as a Government, are committed to a referendum on housing. The Housing Commission is considering the matter. It has not yet advised us on a wording. Once we see it, we will consider it. Without any wording proposed from the commission, having a referendum concurrent with the other one in November is very unlikely at this stage. We will see the wording when it comes.

Any amendment on housing worth having has to be one that makes it easier to build homes. There is no point in putting language in the Constitution that gives people a legal right to housing if it does not help housing to be built. I do not want to see a court ruling against the State and giving people compensation for not providing them housing while the court next door strikes down planning permissions. That would be incongruous to me. Some aspect of any housing amendment has to make it easier to build homes. We have to consider that as part of the deliberations. Otherwise, it will be meaningless. There is no point in having a right that cannot be vindicated. Any housing amendment worth having should tip the balance in favour of more homes being built, not against it. That would be crucial from my point of view in supporting any wording.

We have no plans for a referendum on neutrality. I doubt we could even agree on a definition of "neutrality". It was a Government decision to declare a policy of neutrality in the 1940s or 1930s. It was never put to the people.

Work is ongoing on presidential voting rights. Reports are done. It is a huge job because it means compiling an international electoral register. Huge numbers of people in the North and around the world would be able to qualify to vote. It is something I support and of which I was very much in favour during my first term as Taoiseach. We do not have a time for it yet but making it happen would be a huge job. Essentially, an international electoral register for Irish citizens and passport holders abroad would be required. Logistically, it would be a huge operation. Now that the Electoral Commission is in existence, it is something it could do but perhaps the time to have it – and this is just a personal view – is at the time of the next presidential election. I do not think we would be able to get it all done in time for the next presidential election so perhaps that would be the right occasion to have a referendum on extending voting rights concurrent with the next election when it comes.

On the interdepartmental group on the gender equality referendum, we hope to have a final proposed wording before the summer recess. The proposals of the all-party committee are under active consideration and we hope to consult with Opposition parties and NGOs in the next couple of weeks to keep everyone informed and in the loop about where the current deliberations are and where they are going.

On the European Parliament elections, I do not know if the Government has taken a formal position on this yet; at least it has not gone to Cabinet. We would generally prefer a May date over a June date but have a slight complicating factor on this occasion as we may gain seats in the European Parliament. We may gain one or two; it has not been decided yet. If we gain one or two, the Electoral Commission will have to do a boundary review and redraw the boundaries for the European Parliament. With an extra seat or two, it could add a seat to an existing constituency and change the boundaries or we could go back to four constituencies roughly modelled on the provinces, like we had before. That might create a complication for us but we will hold the local and European elections concurrent. It would not make sense to have people go to the polls twice within a few weeks.