The Government may postpone the planned patent referendum originally scheduled for this June.
As it stands, 17 European Union countries participate in the Unified Patent Court, which represents a single court to recognise and harmonise patents across EU member states.
The government would like to sign Ireland up to this court as well, requiring an amendment to Article 29 of the Irish Constitution, which outlines various international agreements and treaties that the state subscribes to. It is understood that the referendum would legally recognise the court to deal with Irish patent disputes.
While a referendum on this matter was originally set to take place on June 7th – the same date as the European and local elections – it is now believed that the referendum may be postponed.
Fine Gael TD Peter Burke, who was appointed as the new Minister for Enterprise this week, is set to bring a memo to Cabinet next week laying out the government’s next steps regarding the referendum.
However, newly-appointed Taoiseach Simon Harris is understood to have indicated at a parliamentary party meeting last night that the referendum will likely not take place on June 7th as originally planned and will instead be postponed.
One government backbencher TD told Gript that they had only heard about the potential delay through the media, not through official channels, and that they were unaware of the reason behind it.