John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I make the suggestion that if we did have a referendum and that referendum failed, the unintended consequences would be that some Government in the future might use that to achieve the exact objective we are trying to prevent and to argue that the Irish people have spoken in a referendum about public ownership of Irish Water and have rejected it, so the Irish people are obviously in favour of it. What if that were to be the future scenario? These are some of the dangers and risks and challenges that face us if we go to the Constitution to secure the rights of something. I refer to the rights under the Eighth Amendment and the absolute mess that has caused. It is the most divisive thing in Irish society - perhaps not now, but it has been in the past. Although it was flagged that there were problems associated with it, it was well-meaning, but it has caused huge division and controversy in Irish society over the years.

During a debate on the Order of Business some time ago, I thought it would be an easy thing to support a referendum to change the Constitution in order to support the public ownership of Irish Water. While we are all in favour of public ownership of Irish Water, in my view, a referendum is not the way to go. It is a basic tenet of democracy that no government can legislatively bind its successor, but we have to have some confidence in our politicians and in the electorate who vote for them, to say that they will take the decisions in the best interests of the Irish people.

There is one further guarantee we could get. Senator Cullinane and others say that the Labour Party and Fine Gael will not be in government next time. Will Irish Water be sold in the next 18 months? What about the boys on the other side? God help us if they get into government. Why do they not give a commitment in a programme for Government that the very first thing-----