Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Citizens' assemblies are an incredibly powerful tool. They are less powerful than the tool of proportional representation, which is the greatest political innovation that Ireland can bring to the world. Confidence in citizens' assemblies depends on their being taken seriously. For example, it will be vital that we see in the next two years actual constitutional referendums coming out of the citizens' assembly on gender equality. These must be real constitutional referendum recommendations and votes, as suggested by the citizens.

I am concerned about the risk of citizens' assemblies on biodiversity and local government being used for evasion. Local government is being chipped away all of the time. We see, even in the planning area, how it is being chipped away. I would love to see every local councillor in Ireland being able to debate the future of local government and have their voices strengthened versus, for example, county and city managers. That is different from a citizens' assembly, rather than a diluting of it.