Greg DalyFormer Taoiseach John Bruton has said warned that citizens’ assemblies and conventions are no substitute for the Oireachtas dealing with controversial issues like abortion.
Mr Bruton said that legislators should not set aside tried-and-tested parliamentary processes.
Mr Bruton told The Irish Catholic he has “no problem with supplementing existing parliamentary processes for policy determination with other additional methods”, but strongly believes “it is important in the interest of accountability that the elected members are given an opportunity to deal with these issues in a systematic way themselves.
“I say this because elected representatives, unlike citizens chosen at random, are accountable and are accountable in a very meaningful way through the process of having to be re-elected,” he continued.
Asked about Taoiseach’s Enda Kenny’s proposal to establish a “citizen’s assembly” to debate the possible repeal of the Eighth (Life Equality) Amendment to the Constitution, he said “at this stage we don’t know if it is to be used in any way replacing proper parliamentary consideration”.
Mr Bruton, who has previously said that he opposes removing the Constitution’s life equality provision, suggested that normal legislative procedures should precede any supplementary assemblies. Green and white papers provide “an informed framework in which eventual decisions might be taken whether by the Dáil and Seanad alone through committees of those bodies, or by the Dáil and Seanad with the aid of any other additional assemblies that might be contemplated”, he said.
“The point is that the process of green and white papers would require one to analyse things in a much more structured way,” he explained, “which should improve the quality of the eventual decision.”
Acknowledging that sometimes governments “must make decisions very quickly” Mr Bruton said this process is not always a practical option, but stressed that “as a general rule if you’re deciding on an issue upon which there are divided opinions and perhaps people not adequately informed about the perspective of other people … then the process of green and white papers helps bring the best available expertise to bear on the issue in a systematic way and a deliberate way.
“I think in a democracy it’s important not just to know your own opinion but to try to understand the opinions of other people,” he said.