Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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1277. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there have been changes to the indicative timetable for the holding of referendums (details supplied) agreed on 26 September 2017. [24787/18]

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Government announced on 26 September 2017 that it had agreed an indicative timetable for the holding of a number of referendums on proposals for amendments to the Constitution arising from the work of the Citizens’ Assembly and the Convention on the Constitution.

In this context, my Department will be responsible for bringing forward appropriate Constitution Amendment Bills on reducing the voting age to 16 and on extending the franchise at Presidential elections to Irish citizens resident outside the State. These referendums will address two of the recommendations of the Convention on the Constitution. Subject to the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bills by the Houses of the Oireachtas, it is proposed that these referendums will be held on the same day as the local and European elections which will take place in late May 2019.

The indicative timetable also included the holding of a plebiscite in October 2018 on directly elected executive mayors. The issues arising in that regard are currently under consideration.