The Convention on the Constitution () was established in Ireland in 2012 to discuss proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland. More commonly called simply the Constitutional Convention, it met for the first time 1 December 2012 and sat until 31 March 2014. It had 100 members: a chairman; 29 members of the Oireachtas (parliament); four representatives of Northern Ireland political parties; and 66 randomly selected citizens of Ireland.
The convention was mandated to consider eight specified issues, and also selected two others to discuss. The government was not obliged to proceed with any amendment proposal, but committed to respond formally to each recommendation and debate it in the Oireachtas. , the government had formally responded to all nine of the convention's reports, and put three of its proposals to referendum. Two of those referendums took place on 22 May 2015: to mandate legal same-sex marriage and to reduce the age of eligibility for the presidency from 35 to 21. The former was accepted, and the latter rejected. A third referendum was passed on 26 October 2018 to remove the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution.
Operation The convention was established pursuant to resolutions in each house of the Oireachtas in June 2012. It was to meet on at least eight Saturdays over the course of a year. The inaugural meeting was on 1 December 2012 at Dublin Castle, and working sessions begin in late January 2013, with later sessions being held elsewhere in the state and in Northern Ireland.Dáil debates 9 October 2012 Vol.773 No.12 pp.18–23
The plenary sessions were open to the public, and streamed live. The convention's secretariat was called the Constitutional Convention Office, led by civil servants from the Department of the Taoiseach. The Secretary was Art O’Leary, previously Director of Committees, Information and Communications of the Oireachtas, who was on secondment to the Department of the Taoiseach. The research was led by the Academic and Legal Research Group, made up of David Farrell, Jane Suiter, Eoin O'Malley, Clodagh Harris and Lia O'Hegarty.
Agenda The establishing resolution set the following agenda items:
reducing the presidential term of office to five years and aligning it with the local and European elections; reducing the voting age to 17; review of the Dáil electoral system; giving citizens resident outside the State the right to vote in presidential elections at Irish embassies, or otherwise; provision for same-sex marriage; amending the clause on the role of women in the home and encouraging greater participation of women in public life; increasing the participation of women in politics; removal of the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution; and following completion of the above reports, such other relevant constitutional amendments that may be recommended by it
The first two items were to be considered first, with recommendations due for report to the Oireachtas within two months of the convention's first meeting. The other specified issues were considered in turn until November 2013, and two other issues were then chosen, Dáil reform and Economic, social and cultural rights.
Members
Chair The chairman was appointed by the Government. Finding a suitable willing candidate took longer than expected. On 24 October 2012, it was announced that the chairman would be Tom Arnold, an economist who is chief executive of the charity Concern and chair of the trust which runs The Irish Times newspaper. Arnold is being paid for his work, and was to step down from his role at Concern in 2013 as the convention's workload increases.
In January 2014, Arnold addressed the Seanad on the convention's work to date. He listed the principles under which it operated as openness, fairness, equality of voice, efficiency, and collegiality.
Citizens The 66 random citizens were chosen by a polling company to reflect the age, regional, and gender balance of the electorate. For each of the 66, a similar-profile alternate was also selected.
In the case of citizen members, only their names and county or Dublin postal district were published, rather than their full postal address. This was agreed after the polling company, Behaviour and Attitudes, reported that some of those selected were worried about being "bombarded" by lobbyists and pressure groups.
Legislators Thirty-three places were reserved for members of the legislatures of the Republic of Ireland (Oireachtas) and Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Assembly). Six parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly were each invited to send one representative. Four accepted, while the Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party declined, regarding the convention as internal to the Republic. The remaining places, 29 in the event, were divided between the Oireachtas groups so as to be "impartially representative of the Houses". Each Oireachtas group is represented, roughly proportional to their total numbers in both houses (Dáil and Seanad), including the Dáil technical group and the Seanad independent group. Sinn Féin has a joint delegation from both legislatures.
AssemblyParty / groupNumberMembersAlternatesRef Oireachtas Fine Gael Charles Flanagan TD (head)James Bannon TDJerry Buttimer TDRegina Doherty TDFrances Fitzgerald TDTerence Flanagan TDTom Hayes TDDerek Keating TDTony McLoughlin TDMichelle Mulherin TDSenator Catherine NooneMary Mitchell O'Connor TD Senator Colm BurkeSenator Paul BradfordSenator Jim D'ArcyPat Deering TDAlan Farrell TDSenator Fidelma Healy EamesSeán Kyne TDJoe O'Reilly TD Oireachtas Labour Party Senator Ivana Bacik (head)Ciara Conway TDRobert Dowds TDAnne Ferris TDSenator Aideen HaydenJohn Lyons TDMichael McCarthy TD Oireachtas Fianna Fáil Seán Ó Fearghaíl TDSéamus Kirk TDSenator Averil PowerSenator Thomas Byrne Oireachtas Dáil technical group Catherine Murphy TDMaureen O'Sullivan TD Oireachtas Seanad independents Senator Jillian van TurnhoutSenator Rónán Mullen Oireachtas +Northern Ireland Assembly Sinn Féin (2 + 1) Gerry Adams TDMary Lou McDonald TDMartin McGuinness MLA Aengus Ó Snodaigh TDSenator David CullinaneCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin TDSenator Kathryn ReillyBarry McElduff MLACaitríona Ruane MLA. Northern Ireland Assembly SDLP Alban Maginness MLA Northern Ireland Assembly Alliance Party Stewart Dickson MLA Northern Ireland Assembly Green Party in Northern Ireland Steven Agnew MLA
Background In the 2007–2011 Oireachtas (30th Dáil and 23rd Seanad) the joint committee on the constitution produced a report on the electoral system which recommended that the issue be discussed by a "Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform" and sketched out the structure of such an assembly.Suteu 2015, p.264;
Manifestos and Programme for Government Proposals for constitutional reform were in the main parties' manifestos for the February 2011 general election. Fine Gael proposed a "Constitution Day" series of referendums and a citizens' assembly on electoral reform. Fianna Fáil also proposed a citizen's assembly. The Labour Party, Sinn Féin, and the Green Party each proposed the drafting of new constitution, respectively by a 90-member "constitutional convention", an "all-Ireland Constitutional Forum", and a "Citizens Assembly". Fine Gael and Labour produced a Programme for Government in March and formed a coalition government. The coalition's Programme said: Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin commented "The Constitutional Convention appears to be Fine Gael's Citizen's Assembly but with Labour's preferred title". Noel Whelan wrote in The Irish Times in 2012, "The programme for government did not define what it meant by a constitutional convention, did not detail its likely composition and was silent on what would happen to any recommendations."
Also in 2011, a group of academics set up a participatory democracy initiative called "We the Citizens", which in June 2011 ran a trial citizens' assembly of 100 randomly selected citizens at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.Suteu 2015, p.265;
Establishment In February 2012, the government proposed that the convention would have 100 members, as follows: a chairperson "of exceptional ability with a high degree of public acceptability" 66 ordinary citizens selected at random from the electoral register (on the model of a citizens' assembly) one member nominated by each political party in Northern Ireland. The precise number would depend on which parties accepted the offer: some Irish republican parties have practised abstentionism, while Ulster unionist parties did not accept invitatations to previous Dublin fora — the New Ireland Forum (1983–84) and the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation (1994–2002). the balance from members of the Oireachtas proportion to party strength.
The plan did not envisage direct participation by social partners or other interest groups, but they would be able to make written submissions. The government also proposed that the first two items for consideration would be lowering the voting age from 18 to 17, and reducing the President's term of office.
Issues upon which the government had already committed to holding a referendum would not be within the convention's remit.
Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Dáil technical group discussed the proposals in March. They reported back to the government in April, and the government responded in June. In regard to acting on the convention's recommendations, the response stated: The Government will commit to giving a public response, through the Oireachtas, to each recommendation from the Convention within four months. It will arrange for a debate in the Oireachtas on that response in each case. In the event the Government accepts a recommendation that the Constitution be amended, the Government's public response will include a timeframe for the holding of a referendum.
On 19 June 2012, the Seanad passed a Fianna Fáil motion that the government's proposal to abolish the Seanad should be referred to the convention. Three Labour senators (John Kelly, James Heffernan, and Denis Landy) defied the party whip to support the motion.
A resolution establishing the Convention in the names of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste was passed in the Dáil on 10 July 2012: A similar resolution was passed by the Seanad on 12 July. Originally one hour was allocated for its debate; senators spent 90 minutes debating procedural motions about whether to extend the time to two hours, after which the resolution was passed without debate.
The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2012Electoral (Amendment) Act 2012 Irish Statute Book was introduced to allow the electoral register to be used to provide the names of the citizen members of the convention. While existing law allows the register to be used for any "statutory purpose", the convention was not established by statute. The bill passed all stages in the Dáil on 11 July and in the Seanad on 12 July, and signed by the President on 18 July.
Although in June the Taoiseach envisaged the Convention beginning work in September, he said in October there was a delay because of the difficulty of finding a chairperson. The initial resolution specified that the convention would complete its business within 12 months of its first meeting, hence by 1 December 2013. In August 2013, the chairman asked for an extension, which was granted by the government and then retrospectively approved by a resolution on 29 January 2014, extending its term until 31 March 2014.
Budget The convention's budget was included under the Department of the Taoiseach; as such the annual budget made provision for it and the following year's report of the Comptroller and Auditor General gave the amount actually spent. Four civil servants from the Department of the Taoiseach worked for the convention. The total cost for three years was €1.367m.Sum of figures from the table.