Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I am disappointed that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is not here. The issue I tabled relates to the referendum on the public ownership of our water services. I asked when the Minister will bring forward the wording, which he committed to bringing forward early this year. I also asked for the date of the referendum.

On 12 October last year I asked about the referendum on the public ownership of our water services as well as the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, framework plan and the White Paper on water services transformation which was to be introduced on 1 January this year and it has. I pointed out the resistance of the water services workers to that framework plan because they neither had the date for the referendum on the public ownership of our water services nor any definite response from the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, on their basic pay, their regular and rostered overtime and allowances which they have as water services workers within the local authority. At this stage we have no wording or date.

Last Friday, as the sponsor of the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016, I wrote a letter to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I have again asked the committee to schedule consideration of the Bill on its agenda and to allow the Bill as soon as possible to advance to Committee Stage. I sent this on the back of five previous letters to the committee.

The Minister wrote to me on 6 November stating he was happy to confirm he would bring forward proposals on a referendum on water ownership for consideration early in the new year. The housing commission report is imminent and we still have not seen a wording or a date. In the absence of wording and date, I request that the committee should either proceed with Committee Stage of my Bill or, with an extreme sense of urgency, request the Minister to meet the committee with wording and a date for a referendum to ensure the Minister's public commitment of early in the new year is adhered to.

Since then, Unite, the union, has rejected the WRC plan and will probably take industrial action on it in the future. There have been discussions on that. On 13 February SIPTU announced it was pausing its co-operation with the framework pending receipt of local authority confirmation that it will abide with the assurances issued by the Minister that current terms and conditions will be maintained, including basic pay, regular and rostered overtime, and allowances. The LGMA has made no such commitment. Either it has no direction from the Minister, it is ignoring the direction from the Minister or it does not have the money to administer it. This has created considerable anxiety and stress to the water services workers and their families.

While I would have preferred if the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage had been here, I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, when we will see the wording and the date for the referendum. The Unite workers rejected the framework plan on that basis. There is considerable disgruntlement among the water services workers in the four unions involved because they do not have a date or wording. They see that as a crucial part of any change in their workplace status.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Joan Collins for raising this issue. I acknowledge and appreciate her dedication and commitment to ensuring that our waters services must always remain in public ownership. At the outset I say clearly and emphatically that the Government is committed to holding a referendum on water and it has already outlined its approach to achieving this. On 24 June 2022, a framework for the future delivery of water services was identified with unions at the Workplace Relations Commission. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage also hosted parallel engagement with unions on a number of policy matters of relevance to workers in the context of the overall water transformation programme, including a referendum on water ownership.

A paper entitled Irish Water Transformation - the Wider Policy Context was shared with unions on 18 July 2022 to reflect the engagement outcomes. The framework document and the wider policy context paper are available to Members in the Oireachtas Library. In the context of the engagement on the referendum, it was noted that public ownership of the water services system, reflecting the clear will of the Irish people, is firmly established as a core principle attaching to delivery of water services. Over the years, this principle has been reflected and strengthened in legislation governing the development and delivery of water services. Arrangements for the enduring public ownership of Uisce Éireann are already firmly secured under the Water Services Acts 2007 to 2022, whereby all shares of Uisce Éireann are vested in the Ministers for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, with both Ministers being prevented by law from alienating their shares.

Engagement with unions on the referendum question focused specifically on how the principle of public ownership may be strengthened through a constitutional referendum. A range of approaches to addressing State ownership of water services had received prior consideration by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General in the context of the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016 brought forward by Deputy Joan Collins as a Private Members' Bill and currently before the Dáil.

An approach based on protecting the public ownership of the entity established under law to provide public water services has been identified as the most appropriate and straightforward approach. An important consideration in planning for a successful referendum is the need to ensure proper public engagement. Noting that the commission on housing has been specifically tasked with advising the Government on a referendum to place the right to housing in the Constitution, I understand that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien's, preferred approach is to advance consideration of the constitutional issues on the rights to housing and protection for the supply of public water at the same time.

Having consulted with his Government colleagues, the Minister has signalled his willingness to support a referendum on public ownership along these lines. The Minister set out his planned approach in the Irish Water Transformation - Wider Policy Context paper shared with unions, as laid before the House, and this plan remains on course. The Minister will therefore bring detailed proposals to Government on a constitutional amendment to address water ownership in conjunction with the anticipated referendum proposal on housing on its receipt from the housing commission. It is understood that the housing commission will be in a position to present its report on the housing referendum in the near future. In this way, it is intended that definitive proposals, including timelines, for referendums on water and housing will be considered by Government in the near future.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I am certainly none the wiser. It has been seven years since we introduced the Bill which was supported by Fianna Fáil. We were told it would be early in the new year and now we are being told it will be in the near future. As the Minister of State said, the housing commission is ready to bring out its report. I would have thought the Minister would have been working on the wording and date for the referendum on the public ownership of water at same time so that as soon as the report from the housing commission is produced, he could move forward quite quickly on this.

The water services workers have made this a key demand before they make any move over to Irish Water. They want the wording and the date. They want their pay, rostered and regular overtime and allowances red-circled before anything happens. They have made that decision. Unite has rejected the WRC plan and SIPTU has stalled any co-operation with Irish Water regarding the terms of their pay and conditions. I hope the Minister of State can at least say it is imminent. What he has said indicates it is not. All we can do is go out in public with the other right-to-water parties in the Dáil and the unions and make it a big issue again.

The can has been kicked down the road since 2016. We were on Third Stage in 2018 with the Bill we introduced and we are still there after a mass movement on water charges which we all remember clearly. It is the people's will. It is the water services workers' will and it is the will of the Opposition parties who supported the Bill.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate the Deputy raising this matter and her interest in and commitment to the referendum. As indicated, the Minister is fully committed to supporting the referendum on public ownership of water, and I cannot emphasise that enough. The Minister's preferred approach, as outlined in the Irish Water transformation policy paper, is to bring forward proposals for a referendum on water ownership, in conjunction with the anticipated referendum proposal on housing. This plan remains on course and he will be working with colleagues across the Government to advance both referendum proposals in the near future.