Assembly of citizens backs major reforms

VOTING IN elections and referendums should be mandatory, according to a majority of participants in a national citizens’ assembly. The assembly also favoured, by a two to one majority, reform rather than abolition of the Seanad and 65 per cent supported cutting the number of TDs in the Dáil.

The participants at the “We the Citizens” assembly in Dublin at the weekend were chosen from a MRBI/Ipsos representative sample of 1,200 people from around the State. Just over 100 attended the assembly, the culmination of seven regional meetings in various counties.

In their debate on political reform, 52 per cent of participants believed voting should be compulsory, 74 per cent favoured retention of the PR single-transferable vote system, while just 34 per cent supported electronic voting.

A slim majority, 51 per cent, supported gender quotas in politics, while 88 per cent favoured “soft measures” such as childcare to encourage more women into politics.

“We the Citizens” is an initiative funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and aimed to show the value to democracy of citizens being part of decision-making between elections.

Academic director of the assembly Prof David Farrell said this was an academic exercise to show that citizens can engage in and take decisions on complex issues. The participants were surveyed, provided with briefing documents, attended regional discussions and will be surveyed again in the next week. Prof Farrell said citizens’ assemblies had been proven to work elsewhere and would work in Ireland as well.

Those involved in the initiative spoke to party leaders who were supportive of the assembly. In its programme for government, the Coalition promised to establish a constitutional convention on political reform and Prof Farrell said an assembly could be used for that.

In a debate at the assembly on education, one group said university fees should not be reintroduced. Their representative Rebecca Roper, a third-level lecturer, said the effects of the decision to abolish fees were starting to come through only now with more people being the first generation in their family going to college.

During a debate on taxation, there were suggestions that property tax should be phased in because people have already been paying it through stamp duty. Ms Roper said rather than imposing a flat-rate tax and telling people they had to pay up, the State should say “we respect what you’re going through” and should look at the price, their borrowings, negative equity and the stamp duty they paid. If someone had paid €40,000 in stamp duty in 2002 that should be counted and they would not have to pay for a number of years based on the property tax they had already paid.

Chairman of “We the Citizens” Senator Fiach Mac Conghail said “we’re not trying to supplant the political process but to support it”. It “is a unique initiative” to show the value of including citizens in the decision-making process.