Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá brón orm nach raibh mé anseo níos luaithe chun páirt a ghlacadh sa díospóireacht seo. Shíl mé go mbeadh sé ar siúl níos déanaí agus bhí cruinnuithe eagraithe agam. Tá an méid a chuala mé go dtí seo spéisiúil. Don chuid is mó, tá gach duine ag tabhairt tacaíochta don coinbhinsiún agus an chaoi ina bhfuil sé ag déileáil leis na saincheisteanna go dtí seo.

I have attended a number of the convention's sittings and I am due to attend the next sitting also. I have found it to be a very interesting experiment in democracy and it has worked. Sometimes great concepts fall through when put into action, but in this case, due to the chairmanship of Tom Arnold, Art O'Leary and the members themselves, this experiment is working. It sets the bar very high for what I hope will be a rolling Constitutional Convention, not necessarily with the existing members but with a change of membership every number of years. Whether it is a Constitutional Convention, or what was intended under the Good Friday Agreement which is an all-Ireland consultative forum, there is a need for such a body, and there may be an even greater need in the autumn given the proposals the Government will put to the people.

We debated at the convention and in the Chamber the fact that the biggest change to the Constitution since it was first written will happen if the people accept the Government's proposal on the Seanad, but the Constitutional Convention which was up and running was not allowed deal with it. This is its biggest shortfall, and it is not a slight on the convention which had its remit; it is an attack, if one wants, on the Government and its failure to use the convention for the purposes for which it was established, which was to examine, debate and tease out issues, and it has done so on every issue it has been asked to analyse.

Sometimes there can be an arrogance that the public would not understand and could not deal with concepts. This has been fully put to bed by the citizen members of the convention. In fairness, the political representatives from North and South have also weighed in with their views and have accepted and taken on board the views of the citizens. A tremendous amount of work has been done by the citizen members. They engage fully and come prepared, having read the documentation. They engage in debate and work out a position towards the end of each convention hearing based on what they have heard. They are not partisan; they are open to ideas and to teasing out issues. Without their enthusiasm, the convention could have been an academic experiment which would have been filed away with nothing ever heard about it, but because of their enthusiasm they have presented us with its first report and at the very least we should act on it in tribute to their work and the time and effort they have put in.

I find it slightly bizarre, outside of the criticism I have with regard to the Seanad, that in the autumn we will also have a referendum on the new court of appeal but not this issue. It would have been ideal to have dealt with the proposals of the Constitutional Convention at the same time so three or four propositions could have been put to the people on the same day. The likelihood now is that the Constitutional Convention, when it concludes its final day in November, will submit another report at which stage the Government will have received all of its reports but will not have acted on any of them. It has made recommendations on the presidency, voting age, same-sex marriage and the electoral system. At the very least we need an indication the Government will accept the reports and will act on them and they will not be like many other reports which were filed away with no action taken.

Tribute must also be paid to the lecturers who have helped ensure the Constitutional Convention has worked well and is fully informed. They have dealt with quite complex issues, particularly when we discussed the various voting systems used throughout the world and how they would impact on Ireland if a change was proposed by the convention. It is important that at this stage the first two proposals made by the convention at the very least should be brought to fruition.

From what I have seen to date, I suggest that when the convention concludes, the Government, with the support of all parties in the House, should examine establishing a further convention to deal with a number of issues which have been raised and need to be tackled. I have an interest in an issue which is not under the remit of the convention at present, and this is the divergence between the Irish and English language versions of the Constitution and how absolutely crazy it is we have two Constitutions because some parts of the Constitution have opposite meanings in both languages. Quite academic works have been done on this issue. I do not believe most people are aware of the fact that the Irish language version is dominant in a court of law. It is bizarre that we have major divergences of meanings in the Constitution and this needs to be addressed. Perhaps it could be examined in itself.

I support the report and recommend to the Government that it be acted upon as quickly as possible. Obviously, it will not be dealt with when we go to the polls with the referendums in the autumn, but the Government should give an indication that all of these reports and what will flow from them will be dealt with, possibly with the European and local elections next year. This would be an opportunity when the people will go to the polls and it would suit if they could deal with a number of proposals on the same day. Over the years the people have shown they can deal with multiple proposals and have answered "Yes" or "No" to various questions on a range of issues. The public is well capable of debating and understanding what is proposed, particularly on what is contained in the first report of the Constitutional Convention.

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