Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to welcome Mr. Tom Arnold to the House in his capacity as chairperson of the Constitutional Convention.  Many of us had asked for the opportunity to invite him to address us, and this is a good moment to do so as the convention moves to the final stage of its deliberations.  It has completed the original tasks set for it with two sessions still to be held.

I am privileged to be the leader of the Labour Party delegation at the convention and have actively engaged with its work.  I join other speakers in paying tribute to the excellent chairing by Mr. Arnold and the work of the secretariat, led by the highly effective Mr. Art O'Leary, Mr. Richard Holland, Mr. Nason Fallon and Ms Amy Brennan, along with the experts, Professor David Farrell, Dr. Jane Suiter and Ms Lia O'Hegarty, and the facilitators and note takers. This has been a positive experience for most of us, whether political or citizen members.  Several citizen members have told me how much they will personally miss the experience of partaking in such an important task in a collegiate and positive atmosphere in the Grand Hotel.  The round-table discussions have been instructive and stimulating for all of us, and it was all done on what Mr. O'Leary memorably described as a very low budget of "about a fiver".

The first of two personal highlights for me was the result on the vote on marriage equality, with a majority of 79% voting in favour of a referendum to allow the definition of marriage to be opened to include gay couples as well as straight couples. This had an enormous impact on civil society and provided a boost to LGBT groups around Ireland.  The second highlight was a moving moment at the convention when we were debating voting rights for citizens residing outside this jurisdiction. We had a video link-up with citizens resident in other countries, who spoke powerfully about their attachment to Ireland and their desire to continue engaging with the Irish State through voting rights.

It would be useful to use the short time available to us to reflect on the work of the convention and its potential for future work.  A book edited by Theo Dorgan, Foundation Stone: Notes towards a Constitution for a 21st Century Republic, was prompted by the work of the convention.  I must point out that I am a contributor to that book.  Many of the articles in the book reflect on the convention, while recognising that there will be time for further reflection once its work is complete.

The establishment of the convention shortly after the celebration of the 75th birthday of Bunreacht na hÉireann in 1937 is timely.  At the time of the 75th anniversary, many of us on the academic legal side were engaged in an assessment of its current status and future direction.  There was a strongly held academic view that the Constitution did not need substantial change and that it remained an adequate reflection of the core principles of our nation's governance.  An alternative view, which I shared, was that the Constitution required radical amendment on a number of grounds.  The convention has contributed to these radical amendments in a positive way.  The Constitution is outdated in a number of ways.  While I agree that it has served us very well as a foundational document, in terms of the governance of the State we need to re-examine the provisions on political structures.  An obvious point that the convention has not addressed - perhaps it is not appropriate for it to do so - is that the word "republic" is not used in the text of the Constitution.  Our legal status as a Republic is not recognised constitutionally.  More substantively, there is a major need for Dáil reform.  I am glad we will be assessing this on 1 February.

Issues arise in respect of the theocratic nature of the Irish State in the past.  While this longer holds for the State, it is reflected in the text of the Constitution.  We have made a number of recommendations to change that, including, notably, the recommendation on changing the definition of marriage to ensure equality for gay couples and the recommendation on the role of women, which reflects the reality of Ireland today.  There should be a gender-neutral provision recognising the role of carers and we should eliminate any specific reference to women's role in the home.  I am glad we have made a recommendation on the removal of blasphemy as an offence under the Constitution.  That will provide us with an opportunity to fundamentally alter the theocratic or religious aspects of the text.  I would like a future convention to investigate other Articles in more depth, such as the religious oath and the preamble, and to consider removing religious references more completely.  That may be work for a future convention.  We have seen immense passion from the hundreds of people who made submissions and attended our public meetings.  Many of them hoped that a future convention would examine other issues in more depth.

We also need to revise the Constitution to ensure the Articles on our fundamental rights reflect a communitarian ethos.  They currently reflect the civil-political approach of liberal philosophy.  For this reason, I welcome the fact that the second issue we will be considering at our final meeting of 22 February will be economic, social and cultural rights.  Whatever recommendations we make in this regard, I hope we recommend the inclusion of these as enforceable rights in the Constitution.  That would represent a move for the Constitution away from the ideologies of the 1930s and towards a more communitarian and pluralist vision of a Republic for the 21st century.