Sir, – As a supporter of the Swiss-style citizens' initiative referendum concept, I was interested to read Barry Flanagan's letter on the matter (April 15th).
The key features of the Swiss system (which has been in place since the 19th century) are, first, that the the citizens themselves can require referendums to be held both on laws passed by the parliament and on the constitution; and, second, that the referendum results are binding on governments. The establishment of such a system as part of our own Constitution would certainly amount to a “democratic revolution” with real teeth.
However, in order to discourage a proliferation of referendums on trivial issues, it would be necessary to have a requirement that the express support of a minimum number of citizens (say 5 per cent of the registered electorate in the case of laws passed by the Oireachtas and 10 per cent in the case of referendums on the Constitution), with this number to be reached within a set time-frame (say 100 days), would be needed for a referendum to be triggered.
The Free State constitution of 1922 included a provision for citizens’ initiative referendums but this was never put into effect. – Yours, etc,
HUGH GIBNEY,
Athboy,
Co Meath.