Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I would say to Deputy Mattie McGrath that he should repeat what he said in regard to my personal matters outside the House.

This is an historic first to have the public involved in reviewing the Constitution. It has happened in other jurisdictions but it has never happened here. What we are doing here is facilitating that process. I know it is only 66 people but, as Deputy Finian McGrath said, we do not want all of academia involved in this process, and he was right. Ordinary people will have an opportunity to contribute.

Members of the public will be selected at random. They will be generally representative of society as regards age, gender, region and social class. There will be 33 males and 33 females in the public membership. Members will, in the first instance, be identified via an independent polling company using professional sampling techniques. The electoral register will then be used to verify that they can vote in referendums and therefore confirm their membership of the convention. I assure Deputy Mattie McGrath that only those people who are alive and answer the telephone or respond to the letter will be able to confirm their participation in the convention. The procedure to select the public members will be overseen by the chair of the convention.

I thank Deputies for their contributions and I hope the process by which we are getting the public involved will be seen as an historic first and that they will have an input into reviewing our Constitution, the document of which we are all proud. Obviously, at this moment in time, the Government has decided it needs to be reviewed and it is engaging with the public in that process.

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