Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the news that the Minister of State delivered in his opening statement that the first two citizens' assemblies will be concurrent. That will allow us to get on with the third and fourth citizens' assemblies as soon as possible, as per the programme for Government. It is also welcome that we will open access to citizens' assemblies to broader and more diverse groups. I think everybody in the House will agree with that change.

At the risk of stating the obvious, we live in a representative democracy. This is a popularity contest to a great extent. It is also true that the electorate knowingly and willingly put us here to make difficult decisions, to do what is right and to resist the impulse of the popular path. The popular path is perhaps the easier way to be elected but it is often in conflict with doing what is right and responsible. As politicians accountable to the electorate, we live with that conflict daily. Our system is not perfect, by any means. It is far from perfect. The many problems we have in society are evidence of this. At the risk of irking my Sinn Féin colleagues, I will quote Winston Churchill who said, "...democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried...". Our system, as imperfect as it is, has given us relative stability and prosperity, but we should always strive to reform, and sometimes to reform radically, which we should do carefully. We have seen enough in our recent history and even currently to know the risks in indulging of the impulse to follow what is popular.

Citizens' assemblies are an appropriate step into radical reform. They are an important interface. As my colleague, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said, in an era of polarisation driven by social media, where it becomes difficult for politicians to be brave and do what is responsible, that interface with the public through citizens' assemblies is extremely important. We have seen significant success in this regard. Laura Devaney, an academic who examined this, said:

Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly was an exceptional experiment in democratic governance and engagement. Comprising 99 citizens, it afforded participants the time, space and structure to deliberate on complex public policy questions, including climate change.

It afforded politicians the space to do what is right. That citizens' assembly led to the citizens' climate research project, the Oireachtas special committee, the programme for Government, and the climate action legislation last year. We would not have that Act and the ambition in it if we did not have that citizens' assembly.

I agree with Deputy McAuliffe that our system of local government is broken. In many respects what happened in Salthill in Galway last week is a testament to that. It could be argued we need citizens' assemblies at a very local level to solve some of these problems. I welcome the citizens' assembly on a directly elected mayor for Dublin. I am disappointed Limerick's venture into that area will not inform that citizens' assembly because we have not advanced the relevant legislation through the House.

I join my colleague Deputy Ó Cathasaigh in paying tribute to Deputy Gino Kenny, across the House, who has done extraordinary work in the area of drug policy. He is certainly a champion in that area. I hope we will be able to bring forward a citizens' assembly on drug use as soon as possible.

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