Fiach MacConghail (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I did not realise I was showing any such anxiety.

The Minister should consider consulting his Cabinet colleagues on this issue before Report Stage. He has highlighted issues concerning Irish Water, the water network, water pipes and so forth. I accept that the Attorney General has advised that the idea of enshrining public ownership of Irish Water in the Constitution by means of a referendum could give raise to serious complications. Having heard the Minister's argument on that issue loud and clear, I will not press that option. However, the Government must consider the ongoing anxiety about public ownership of Irish Water. To assuage this anxiety, the Minister should examine the possibility of finding a halfway house, as it were, between Senator Byrne's interesting amendment and a public water forum.