Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely concur with Deputy Denise Mitchell. This is absolutely the wrong signal to give for the reasons I outlined in private session. There are real threats to democracy and democratic institutions, the likes of which we have not seen since the 1930s, and that is not an exaggeration. We need only look at the landscape of Europe and some of the elections coming up there and what has happened in the US recently. We have an opportunity to build on steps we have taken in the Irish Parliament to connect with citizens in a real and meaningful way. As I said in private session, the Citizens' Assembly initiative was recently commended by a leading thinker, David van Reybrouck. In an open letter published across Europe in November, he pointed to Ireland as a model of good practice. Ours is the most innovative democracy in Europe. A few weeks ago, a random sample of 100 Irish citizens drafted by lot was brought together into a Citizens' Assembly. That which brought us the Citizens Assembly also brought us this committee, which we are now beginning to water down before it has even begun to take root in the public mind or begun its real work.

This is at a time when democracy and democratic institutions are being questioned and under threat. There is a need to make the most of the committee and for us not to sulk in a corner but to get on with what we have to do. At the same time we must promote the work of the committee through the Citizens Information boards and others and connect with these bodies. We should go out and about to ensure we will not be seen a group of people in a privileged position in an ivory tower and that we are trying to connect with people who ordinarily would not be able to work the system. I am thinking of people with intellectual disabilities who may not be able to read and those in nursing homes who may have very important issues of public interest to raise but who are not able to access the process. They may have grievances, issues and complaints to make. They are very dependent on public systems. We should, therefore, make an effort to reach those who are hard to reach. We also need to continue to support the Chairman in making the case for extending the remit of the committee and to point to the context in which we are working in order that when he meets the Taoiseach he will be able to put petitions in that context.

Stephen Collins wrote in The Irish Timesthat mainstream politics had not failed, it just needed to connect. The committee is absolutely pivotal in making that connection. Brexit and the election of Donald Trump raise deeply uncomfortable questions about the future of western liberal democracy. European Union countries have been given a fair warning of the dangers. If Marine Le Pen is elected in France ,it will put a question mark over the entire European Union project. That will put everything we have been working on nationally and internationally in a very different place. We should not take these issues lightly. Dealing with petitions is an honest attempt to connect with the citizenry; therefore, this is not a committee that should be watered down but one that should be promoted and expanded. Stephen Collins said the big failure of western governments had been their growing inability to connect with the wider public and communicate the nature of the choices and trade-offs that were an essential part of democracy. He went on to note that at a wider EU level a much greater effort had to be made to communicate with citizens on what the institutions were doing if people were to be persuaded to stick with a project that had delivered so much for the continent. People do need to see the bigger picture in terms of the work we are doing. We should make the case, not just for ourselves as members but also for the sake of democratic institutions in Ireland.