Sir, – As the concept of a referendum on the Eighth Amendment proceeds it may be interesting for readers to view the approach that is being taken. It seems that there will be a forum, a citizens' assembly to debate the issue.
While this may appear laudable, there are proven reasons to question such a deliberative approach to find the “best” solution to a difficult topic.
It has been firmly established that such deliberation has four inherent problems: Errors can be amplified, hidden profiles and common knowledge can exist, there can be informational cascades and finally it can lead to group polarisation.
In order to avoid these problems, an alternative would be to set down a spectrum of choices well before the referendum takes place. At one end there is the choice to do nothing and leave the status quo; at the other end, repeal it with no changes to legislation. In between we might have a number (eight perhaps) of stages indicating the form of legislation that would be proposed.
So now we would have 10 choices. These would be publicly available and people could express their preferences, for example on-line.
It might form a type of predictive market. In this way the later referendum ought to be less contentious, more debated and by definition more accepted.
– Yours, etc,
RENAAT VERBRUGGEN
Ashford
Co Wicklow.