Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is because we have a written Constitution that is bigger than the Senator or me.

I believe the people are sovereign on this issue. That is the reason it will be put to the people.

On the question of the choice of reform, I want to make it clear that there is no provision for a preferendum in our written Constitution. I ask colleagues to read Article 47, which states that effectively the people must decide by way of a majority. For instance, if a question about reform, abolition or retention was on a ballot paper there is no guarantee that a majority of votes in that scenario would comply with Article 47. We could be left with a situation where 40% were in favour of abolition, 30% for reform and 30% for retention. We do not have a constitutional mechanism for a preferendum.