Convention members to vote on issues of priority if another forum is established

Members of the Constitutional Convention will vote this week on what priority they would give to issues that could be considered should another convention be established.

Chairman of the convention Tom Arnold said yesterday there were six broad categories of issues that could potentially be considered, based on some of the 3,000 submissions received by the temporary think- tank since its establishment and discussed at the nine regional meetings held last year.

Mr Arnold was speaking after the final meeting of the convention over the weekend, which considered economic, social and cultural rights protections.

He said potential future topics for another convention included further discussions on economic, social and cultural rights; Dáil reform; political/institutional reform including of the Seanad; family and issues of morality; Church-State relations; the environment and a Bill of Rights. Mr Arnold, former chief executive of Concern, said they had received a "considered submission from Sinn Féin about rights included in the Good Friday Agreement that should be reflected in the Constitution".

It was for the Government to decide if there should be another convention, he said, but there was a strong feeling from members that it would make sense to have a subsequent arrangement after the nine weekend meetings a year at the Grand Hotel in Malahide, Co Dublin.

Reports are in preparation on the final topics considered by the last two convention meetings – on Dáil reform earlier this month and on economic, social and cultural rights discussed at the weekend, with a separate “final, final report” on issues not formally considered by the convention but discussed at the regional meetings held around the country and at the final discussion yesterday.

The meeting consisted of the 100 members, 66 of them chosen as individual citizens and 33 politicians, with Mr Arnold as chairman. He said the two thirds/one third ratio of citizens to politicians worked well and there might be some “tweaking at the edges” if there was another convention. He believed it would be a different 100 members if it was established and suggested it could either be the Government on its own which decides the agenda or the members of the convention themselves.

Mr Arnold believed the convention worked well with a secretariat of four civil servants led by Art O’Leary. The members worked hard, based on a “steep learning curve”, to be au fait with all the issues under discussion. The think-tank had a budget last year of about €900,000, which included the cost of the holding the nine meetings in Malahide.