In March 2018, the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government decided to give the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, time to introduce amendments to the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016 and he was to come back to the committee with these amendments within two months. We wrote to him on 13 November seeking an update. He responded on 18 December stating he could not give us a timeline for when these amendments would be ready. The committee is very keen to proceed. We have given the Minister and his predecessor an enormous amount of time. I ask him to give us an indication of when he expects to have his amendments so that the committee can be allowed to progress with the Bill.

I thank the Deputy for the question. We are awaiting wording from the Office of the Attorney General, but we have agreement to try to find the appropriate wording. I updated the committee and advised it that we, in the Department, believe we know the right wording for an amendment to the Deputy's Bill to be put to the people in a referendum. However, we now need the Attorney General to come back and confirm that wording is robust so that there are not any unintended consequences from the referendum to be put to the people. It is in the interest of everyone, if we are to have that referendum, that all political sides in this House agree on that wording thereby giving the referendum every chance of being successful when it is eventually put to the people.