David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to express my concern and ask the Leader to indicate to the Government the discomfort that other Members also feel, particularly those who are members of the Constitutional Convention. I read a report in last Tuesday's edition of The Irish Times that the Government had accepted three out of four of the recommendations of the first session of the Constitutional Convention. They were about retaining the presidential term at seven years, reducing the age for a presidential candidate from 35 to 21 and reducing the voting age from 18 to 16. While this is pretty anodyne stuff, I did manage to get onto the programme a debate on the question of whether the people should have a real say in the nomination process for the presidency of Ireland. A full debate was held and 94% of those attending agreed to this. The response was absolutely overwhelming, despite strenuous efforts to guide affairs in a particular direction. Some of the recommendations that have been accepted or voted through by 52%. The Government will ignore a result of 94% and will only take those measures that suit it and those which were predicted.

A statement was made on the other side, I believe in good faith, that the convention could not have considered this matter. Yes, it could because we tried to table a motion asking the convention to write to the Taoiseach to do certain things that would permit this issue to be discussed. However, we were inhibited from even writing a letter to the Taoiseach. It was the most extraordinary example of management I have ever seen in my entire life. There were heavy interventions from civil servants and from the platform.