On Friday every voter in the European and local elections will receive a green ballot paper seeking approval for the insertion of Article 28A into the Constitution. This amendment provides for recognition for local government and the election of local bodies at five-year intervals.
However, the referendum has failed to ignite the public's imagination. A spokesman for the Department of the Environment and Local Government admitted there had been few inquiries about it, and the Referendum Commission, which prepares information and arguments on referendums, received fewer than 40 submissions.
The referendum has its origins in the plans of the Minister, Mr Dempsey, for reform of local government. His Department will publish a Local Government Bill in the autumn. While this will be introduced irrespective of the outcome of the referendum, the constitutional amendment is part of this programme of reform, according to a spokesman. It is intended to give constitutional status to the one sphere of directly elected government which does not have it.
The spokesman had no explanation for this void in the Constitution, but agreed that it was probably an oversight, arising from the fact that local government existed in Ireland before independence, while the President, Dail and Seanad did not.
He said that, apart from the provision that elections to local government should take place every five years, the amendment was largely symbolic. "Previously it was in the gift of the Minister to postpone local government elections," he said.
If the amendment is passed the constitutional status of local government will also mean it cannot be abolished without another referendum.
The Minister is not alone in promoting this amendment. It was one of four proposed new provisions in the report of the Constitution Review Group in 1996. (The others were the Ombudsman, the environment and a Human Rights Commission, which will be introduced as a result of the Belfast Agreement.) The All-Party Committee on the Constitution also recommended a local government constitutional amendment.
When the text of the amendment was agreed by the Oireachtas, it went to the Referendum Commission so the arguments could be made for and against it. Following the McKenna judgment, the Government may not spend public money promoting one point of view in a referendum, so the Referendum Commission, set up under the Referendum Act, is charged with outlining opposing views.
It received £750,000 for promoting this referendum, which compares with £2.3 million for the Amsterdam Treaty. This campaign does not include mail-shots to homes. The commission published advertisements seeking submissions on the amendment. It received 37; six in favour, 18 against, and 13 which suggested changes in the wording which, as it had been agreed by the Oireachtas, could not be considered.
Mr Dan Kelleher, who has been seconded from the office of the Ombudsman to the secretariat of the commission, said submissions were confidential but the majority came from individual members of the public. For obvious reasons, the General Council of County Councils made a submission supporting the amendment.
The commission then published information on the referendum and, based on the submissions received, published arguments for and against over the past few days.