Public
Citizens of Ireland
Taoiseach and Tánaiste, and the leaders of each political party in Ireland

The project, which operated throughout 2011, consisted of the establishment of a new entity “We the Citizens” with a fully staffed HQ in Dawson Street. A series of seven public events were organised across the country, designed to give ordinary citizens an opportunity to discuss their vision of a citizen-centred Ireland. The topics discussed informed the agenda of Ireland’s first national citizens’ assembly (CA). Underlying this was a survey-experiment to measure the impact on the citizens. The results were presented to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and other party leaders to persuade them of the merits of this approach to citizen engagement.

The outputs are as follows:

• The successful establishment of Ireland’s first ever citizens’ assembly in 2011, a deliberative mini-public.
• The adoption of the same method by the state in the creation of the Irish Constitutional Convention (2012-14), which went on to make over 40 recommendations for institutional and constitutional reform, many of which were accepted by the state (notably the successful marriage equality referendum, and most recently the blasphemy referendum))
• The adoption of the same method again in 2016 with the creation of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly (which operated till early 2018), which again resulted in a series of recommendations, one of which — repeal of the 8th amendment (on abortion) – also resulted in a successful referendum in June 2018.
• Prof Farrell was appointed as the Research Director of the Irish Constitutional Convention and the Research Leader of Irish Citizens’ Assembly
• Subsequent funding received from the Department ot Taoiseach (to support Prof Farrell’s work with the Convention) and the Irish Research Council (to support Prof Farrell’s work with the Assembly)
• Academic outputs included 11 jointly authored publications to date (two other papers under considerations; and four other papers being prepared for submission).

The outcomes are as follows:

• Large scale Dáil reform in 2016 (as recommended by the Convention)
• Four referendums (marriage equality, presidential age, abortion, blasphemy), three of which were successful
• Other referendums promised within the next year (on the role of women, voting age, votes for citizens’ abroad)
• Analysis of survey data gathered after the marriage equality referendum vote in 2015 indicated that knowledge of the Constitutional Convention was a factor in influencing the Yes vote.
• A similar analysis of survey data gathered after the abortion referendum vote in 2018 also found that knowledge of the CA was a factor in influencing the Yes vote.
• There are fresh calls for a third citizens’ assembly.
• Ireland is seen as a beacon internationally in its use of deliberative citizens’ assemblies in this way.

Social & Cultural Policy and/or Product Development Capacity Building