Ireland as a Learning Experience for the Scottish Citizens’ Assembly
| Published date | 01 January 2020 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2020.0604 |
| Pages | 95-103 |
| Date | 01 January 2020 |
Ireland's recent high-profile referendums to liberalise abortion laws and to legalise same-sex marriage, both of which followed recommendations from deliberative assemblies, have been held up as examples to the world in how to tackle major reform questions in a democratic and inclusive way. However, much media coverage has over-stated the impact which the assemblies had in the results of both votes and it is dangerous to glorify the Irish process as one which develops consensus or acts as a panacea for complex national issues. Taking inspiration from the Irish model, the Scottish Citizens’ Assembly will shortly embark on a fascinating experiment in the Scottish context to deliberate on important questions with regard to the future of the country. It is useful, then, to reflect on the Irish experience and consider what lessons this might provide for the Scottish process.
To date there have been two major experiments with deliberative assemblies in Ireland. A third on gender equality is scheduled. The first, the Convention on the Constitution, was established in 2012 following an election promise and was charged with considering a list of potential constitutional reforms.
Reducing the Presidential term of office from seven to five years and aligning it with the local and European elections;
Reducing the voting age from eighteen to seventeen;
Review of the Dáil electoral system;
Giving Irish 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;
Removing the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution;
Additional issues of choice: Dáil reform and economic, social and cultural rights.
While not specifically included in its mandate, an expert advisory group was appointed to assist the Convention in its deliberations. All presentations, documents and reports were available publically on the Convention's website. Initially, the public were sceptical about the Convention, primarily because the issues set for consideration were limited and many might even have been termed “non-issues”. Indeed, presenting issues such as lowering the voting age, reducing the term of the Presidency and removing the dead-letter reference to blasphemy from the Constitution as major reform questions was seen as “a joke”.
Despite a rocky start, the Convention is widely regarded to have been a success. This is mostly due to the level of commitment and engagement from members but also because of the success of the resulting referendum on same-sex marriage. The remaining issues, however, received little attention. Further referendums were held on the issues of blasphemy and reducing the qualification age for the Presidency. While the blasphemy referendum passed, it generated almost no interest from the public, and the Presidential age proposal failed.
One interesting facet of the Convention relates to the inclusion of politicians in this exercise. When reports from the Convention were presented to the Oireachtas, the major advantage was that the politicians who had been involved in the process felt a level of ownership over the reports, which generated meaningful parliamentary engagement with the recommendations.
Following the 2016 general election, and in the political-horse trading around government formation, it was agreed that a Citizens’...
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