Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed an abortion referendum on the 8th Amendment to the Constitution will take place in May or June next year.
He told the Dáil of government plans for a total of seven referendums between now and the summer of 2019.
October 2018 will see three referendums, all planned for the same date as the next presidential election .
The polls will take place even if there is no presidential vote.
The three referendums will focus on blasphemy, women in the home, and potential plebiscites on directly elected mayors.
In June 2019, meanwhile, there are plans to ask voters about liberalising Ireland's divorce laws, extending the franchise to citizens abroad to vote in presidential elections, and reducing the voting age to 16.
Those three votes would take place on the same day as the local elections - with hopes that holding the referendums on the same day as another poll would help drive down the costs.
Our political correspondent Chris Donoghue reports from Leinster House:
