Dail to get early recall to speed up referendum

The Dail is expected to be recalled early on Tuesday week to pass the legislation providing for a referendum on changes to Articles 2, 3 and 29 of the Constitution on May 22nd.

Arising from the Northern Ireland Agreement, the Government is considering calling back the Dail four hours earlier - at 10.30 a.m. - that day to enable it to meet the 30-day notice period required for holding a referendum.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution Bill, setting out the proposed constitutional changes, plus the enabling legislation to hold a referendum, will have to pass all stages in the Dail and Seanad by midnight on Thursday week for the poll to be held on May 22nd.

Government sources confirmed last night that it was still intended to table amendments to Articles 2 and 3, to Article 29 enabling the Oireachtas to devolve power to the new North-South Ministerial Council and implementation bodies, and to designate these changes as "transitory provisions" of the Constitution, in the form of one question to be put to the people.

The Government will also consider the suspension of all other business in the Dail next week, including Question Time if necessary, to enable the referendum proposals to be passed on time.

As an information service to voters, the Government is ensuring that free copies of the Northern agreement will be available at post offices and Garda stations from Tuesday. The text of the document is already on the Internet.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said in an RTE interview yesterday that he had written to Mr Brian Lenihan, the chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, asking him to consider ways to permit people living in Northern Ireland to play a more active role in the political life of the Republic. It is understood that the question of allowing Northern voters to vote in presidential elections is one of the options being considered. Proposals to allow Northern politicians a "right of audience" in the Oireachtas or to provide extra Seanad seats, or a combination of all three proposals, have also been signalled.

Informed sources also confirmed that the new North-South Ministerial Council will have a physical presence in Northern Ireland. It has yet to be decided, however, where the office and secretariat of the council will be based.

This follows the decision by the British and Irish Governments to replace the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 with last Friday's historic agreement. The Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, based in Belfast for the last 13 years, will cease to exist when the new agreement comes into force.

It was also learned that the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, succeeded in having all economic policy areas removed from the remit of the North-South implementation bodies during last week's intensive negotiations at Stormont Buildings. The Framework Document, published in 1995, proposed that aspects of industrial development, consumer affairs, energy, trade and economic policy would be among the harmonising functions to be designated to the North-South bodies. These are absent from the new agreement.