The Government is to hold a referendum on the same day as the local and European elections, aimed at giving Constitutional recognition to local government.
The change, if approved by the electorate on June 11th, would give local government a formal basis in the Constitution. At present, it operates on a statutory basis only.
The two-paragraph amendment would fix a maximum period between local elections of either five or six years, as well as making a statement in principle on the role of local government.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said constitutional recognition would enhance the status of local government, because "once something is in the Constitution, you can't mess with it". He added that fixing the maximum periods between polls would end a situation in which successive governments had postponed local elections. It had been eight years since the last county council poll and there had been a gap of seven years to the previous one. "That's a negation of democracy," he said.
The Workers' Party welcomed the news as "long overdue", and said the period between elections should be no more than five years.
