David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The very fact that I am an odd man means I fit in very well with the company of women. I regard myself as an honorary gender-neutral person here.

I echo the compliments paid to Mr. Arnold, who has been a friend of mine for many years. I have always greatly admired his work on behalf of international charities, particularly Concern. He has always been a gentlemanly, affable and generally fair-minded chairman of the convention.

So far we have had almost unalloyed emollients in the speeches. I intend to break the pattern as there are a number of elephants in the room. First, if we wish to carry out the business of a Constitutional Convention again we must make sure it is much more democratic. The current convention was not fully democratic because the Government had us hog-tied from the beginning. It set the terms of reference so that there was no room to manoeuvre and no possibility for us, as a democratic assembly, to attempt to set elements of our own interests and so on.

There is no point in avoiding the fact that while some of the issues addressed were highly significant and important, others were utterly trivial. The Government stacked it up and managed, at one remove, to micro-manage the convention extremely efficiently in its own interest and not necessarily in the interest of the participation of people. I was one of those who were a little cynical. I was not sure what kinds of contribution we would receive from the other members at the table - the randomly selected people. However, I was vastly impressed by the interest they took in the Constitution, by their devotion and the time they dedicated to thinking about it and by the quality of their contributions. That, to me, was the single most inspiring thing about the entire convention.

I was prevented from attending the meeting on same-sex marriage. On reflection, I am very glad I was because it cannot be said that I used rhetoric to sway views. It was the people who spoke. I gather that one of my colleagues spoke very strongly against the matter, yet the people in their wisdom were supportive. Sometimes the people have a hell of a lot more sense than the Government or either House of the Oireachtas.