Political parties and interest groups are to get State money to fight referendum campaigns, under proposals which are expected to be accepted by the Government.
The Referendum Commission's powers should be limited to sharing State money among referendum campaigners and distributing information, the Oireachtas All-Party Committee on the Constitution recommends.
Due to be published on Wednesday, the committee's report believes the commission's attempt to argue the case for both sides in the Nice Treaty referendum campaign was a worthy failure.
However, it does not go as far as the former Chief Justice, Mr Justice T. F. O'Higgins, who - in an article in The Irish Times today - argues for the overthrow of the McKenna judgment which laid down that the Government cannot use taxpayers' money to argue its own case in a referendum.
The "continuing and pervading effect" of the 1995 Supreme Court ruling in that case was the "dominant" reason for the Nice Treaty's defeat last June, he writes. Referendums could become "unreliable and even dangerous" if legislation to let the Government campaign for its own argument in a referendum campaign was not introduced quickly, he believes.
The chairman of the Oireachtas committee, Fianna Fβil Dublin West TD Mr Brian Lenihan, has kept closely in touch with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, during the committee's work. The committee vice-chair is Fine Gael Cork South West TD, Mr Jim O'Keeffe.
The committee believes the commission should distribute necessary information during a referendum campaign, but not advocate the case for both sides. "This should be left to people who care one way, or the other," said one source.
The maximum time between an Oireachtas decision to hold a referendum and it taking place should be left open-ended and not limited by the current 90-day rule, according to the committee.
Debate on the contents of a referendum should continue until all TDs and Senators have had "sufficient time" to make their points, rather than putting in place a rigid timetable.
Mr Justice O'Higgins writes that the McKenna ruling came during a "very bitter" divorce referendum campaign, which led the Supreme Court "in the wrong direction". The Government has a duty "to step into the campaign" if it believes the public is not properly informed about a referendum's meaning, according to the former Chief Justice, who retired in 1985.
