TDs have to stop offloading their work to citizens’ assemblies

The other day a friend of mine told me that his company had received a call to tender for the provision of note-taking services at the two upcoming citizens’ assemblies on biodiversity and a directly elected mayor for Dublin. It made me think about how these events are recorded for posterity, and whether the notes taken can ever adequately represent the events on the floor. From my experience as a spectator of the assembly on the Eighth Amendment, I think it’s unlikely.

Accusations that citizens’ assemblies are a way for the Government to evade difficult decisions are well-known, and the assembly on the Eighth was a prime example. After all, who wants to legislate for abortion? Whatever about the reluctance of the past, the political trauma of 2013 galvanised the fact that it was the ultimate issue-to-be-avoided. Shortly before the assembly kicked off, one politician even expressed their personal view that the assembly was one way to push things to one side and let other people bear the responsibility.

That’s what assemblies of this nature do – give politicians a chance to avoid dealing with contentious issues by having someone to blame if things go wrong. It’s not my fault! The assembly made me do it!

I attended the sessions which took place in Malahide and the process struck me as a bit of a shambles. The plan was something like this: gather a group of people in a room so they can listen to experts, ask questions and formulate ballots to be voted on. The question-and-answer sessions were particularly chaotic, with the wording of the ballots changing as the discussions went on. Remove a word here, add a word there. If you answer yes to part A of question 1, then that brings you to part B and some recommendations. If you answer no to part A then you go to part C and more recommendations. Most of the time it sounded less like a political discussion and more like the quick-fire round on the Krypton Factor.

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Tidy photoshoot

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t make for clarity among the participants. At one point a person stood up and said that they knew the outcome they wanted to achieve but they were so confused by the ballots that they didn’t know how to get there. Still, everyone persevered and when the results were announced, they were summarised in a neat little table that led to a tidy photoshoot and the next stage in the process.

Assemblies give politicians a chance to avoid dealing with contentious issues by having someone to blame if things go wrong

I should say at this point that I don’t place any blame on the people who ran the event or the participants themselves. They acted professionally and with great care at all times, but they could only do so much within the constraints of such a fundamentally flawed process. Expecting people to cram a specific topic for a few days and then magically exit the hothouse with the answer to the pressing issues of the day is not just wildly optimistic, it’s practically negligent.

Even the invitation process is doomed because it’s not possible to bring together any kind of representative group when each person is obliged to spend one full weekend each month away from jobs and family responsibilities. Add to that the extra reading required between sessions and the pool of available participants dwindles even more. At the assembly on the Eighth, it felt as though Enda Kenny acknowledged the fact in his opening remarks when, speaking about going back to “the people”, he quickly clarified that the participants were instead just a “select representative group”. Select, yes. Representative? No.

Weakest forum

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, of course I gave a presentation at one of the sessions. A lobbyist in any campaign will tell you the value of uninterrupted speaking time and when you find yourself hurtling towards a referendum, you take what you can get.

Besides, I wanted to speak about Emma Beck, who ended her life after aborting twins, a tragedy she expressly referred to in the note she left behind. Her experience has always struck a chord with me, and I’d make use of even the weakest forum to give a voice to her words.

Micheál Martin has suggested a citizens' assembly be convened to discuss neutrality in the wake of conflict in  Ukraine

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has suggested a citizens’ assembly should be convened to discuss neutrality in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine. It’s time for us to reject invitations to these kinds of assemblies and instead demand accountability from our elected representatives. If they want to take the temperature on a particular topic then they should retreat to their constituencies, hold some public meetings and then come back to the Dáil with opinions that haven’t been mired in complexity and confusion.

Perhaps the attendees of those meetings won’t have access to as much information, but then again, neither do the electorate who have the final say. Essentially, the assembly on the Eighth loaded information onto participants tasked with voting on whether the country should take a vote. When the referendum was ultimately called, however, the urgency to educate the general public diminished dramatically.

Our politicians are given the power to make decisions that affect us all. We must demand that they stop offloading the responsibility for those decisions onto a group of people who shouldn’t be expected to shoulder the weight of a nation over a few short weekends and endless cups of tea.