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A GOVERNMENT TENDER has finally been issued for a polling company to source the people who will sit on the promised Citizens’ Assembly.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil in June that a polling company would decide the makeup of the assembly.
The Fine Gael-led government committed to setting up a Citizen’s Assembly which would discuss the Eighth Amendment – which guarantees the right to life of the unborn, equating it with the mother’s right to life – in the first six months of its term.
Other issues the assembly will discuss include how we best respond to the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population; fixed term parliaments; the manner in which referenda are held; and how the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change.
The tender published on the government E-Tenders website states the company will be tasked with selecting 99 members of the public plus 99 substitutes who are willing to act as members of the assembly.
First meeting in October
The first meeting is due to be held in October, and meetings will be held over 10 weekends, sitting all-day Saturday and until mid-afternoon on Sunday.
The proceedings will be broadcast online.
The tender specifies that the assembly will publish a report based on its recommendations within one year from the date of the first meeting.
The Department of An Taoiseach, which issued the tender, specifies that members of the assembly should be chosen at random and be representative of society as regards age, gender, social class, and regional spread.
The members of the public should also be on the electoral register to vote in a referendum.
A tender has also been issued for suitable hotels to provide weekend accommodation and conference facilities for approximately 120 people. The government intends to create a panel of hotels within a 20 kilometre radius of Dublin that can host the meetings.
Despite promises of diversity on the assembly, a number of TDs have already voiced their doubts over how it will function effectively.
Transparency of the assembly
Anti-Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit’s Brid Smith and Ruth Coppinger have said there are no guarantees that there will be complete transparency around the establishment of the assembly or that members will not be subject to lobbying.
Smith said she did not know how a polling company, which will be tasked with selecting the members, could ensure the assembly is balanced.
“How do you vet someone who may have a strong Catholic ethos or anti-choice position? asked Smith.
Due to the divisive nature of the issue, concerns have also been raised about the publication of the names of those that will sit on the assembly.
There were similar concerns raised when the Constitutional Convention was set up in 2012. It dealt with a number of issues including voting age and blasphemy, but the one that attracted most attention was same-sex marriage.
At the time, chairman Tom Arnold said the convention was keen to engage with interest groups who may wish to offer input but that there were fears among some members that they could be bombarded by unwanted contact.
Arnold said some members had expressed concerns that they might be on the receiving end of intensive lobbying from interest groups hoping to influence their decisions.
Publishing names
On that occasion, personal details were kept to a minimum. The names of the members were published with a general indication given as to where they were from.
The same framework will most likely be used to establish the Citizens’ Assembly.
The issue of repealing the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution has been divisive in Irish society as well as in political circles.
Some critics of the idea believe that the Citizens’ Assembly is merely an exercise in ‘kicking the can down the road’ to avoid dealing directly with an issue which has been described by some political figures as a political hand grenade.
Amending the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act to allow pregnant women who have been given diagnoses of fatal foetal abnormalities to have a termination in Ireland already created a split in Cabinet in June this year when members of the Independent Alliance said they wanted to back the Bill.
Fine Gael has come under further pressure to tackle the issue following a UN ruling that Ireland is obliged to provide compensation to a woman who was forced to travel abroad to have an abortion.
A committee of experts from the UN’s Human Rights Commission found that Ireland’s laws on abortion have had a “chilling effect” on healthcare and contributed to “negative experiences”.
The closing date for the polling company tender is 19 August, while the hotel accommodation tender closing date is 26 August.
Despite this $600bn spent on ‘defence’ annually in the USA…
@keenan, the US is the future third world.
We should build communal trailer parks and house the layabouts and scobies. If all the freeloaders houses were returned to the market it would solve a lot of problems.
Forty coats of tar and feathers for you sunshine
Anyone else think the two lads in the car look a bit scary?
The guy closest to the camera is slightly Christian Bale in the machinist…
So much for the American Dream!
As opposed to your Sinn Fein socialist paradise? Aint no dreams going to be made in that at all.
Would you prefer Fianna Fâils Wild West economics? That worked out great eh. Or the Blueshirts severe austerity and one of the worst unemployment rates in Europe. Don’t talk shit if you can’t argue an alternative.
“Blueshirts”… are you living in the 1930′s or something? Believe it or not but the Irish economy is stronger now than it has been in 8 years. Unemployment is falling rapidly and investment is rising. Let’s keep the “talk shit” policy to Sinn Fein circles
@Shane, what country are you living in. I along with others have emigrated and will never return.
Finally, Shane Sinn Feinn are not a socialist party, they are Republicans thugs masquerading as a party
dream on sheane. ya blue shirt
Jesus I thought these were photos of certain location in mullingar until I saw the caption.
should the article headline not read, “life inside a US trailer park”?
My God, the article makes these people seem like aliens and that the photographer got a lucky break to take the shots. I can imagine how annoyed these people were when they read the article. The photos are not very good either, bad composition, terrible lighting, etc. They look very unnatural and forced.
Unnatural and forced? Are we looking at the same pictures?..
Yes Paul Cadmin , I agree the pictures are terribly shot. Lighting is not on the subject and the posing of subjects is unnatural. Really poor and creates a miserable set of images.
“They took Errr Jerbs!”
Ha! If I could like this more than once I would.
Really great photography, beautifully captured. I particularly like the last one.
a price worth paying to keep the military complex going….murica fck yeah!
And you here to commit
It isn’t that bad, people in the usa spend their money differently to us, they eat out more than eat in etc & plenty of people in Ireland live in mobile homes. We have our own issues in this country without being smug and judging another one.
Do me babee one more time….
Ireland and most of Europe in 20 to 30 years time. A World that is over populated , poor, and Islamic.
Islamic? Will all the Christians, Jews, Hindus and Atheists disappear?
Muslim war will be won via higher birth rates. Not guns and bombs that’s just a side show.
Don’t look that bad
American Travellers.
Blaming the “Military Industrial Complex”. Is that the new buzz-phrase that Russell Brand has encouraged his army of trendy leftie keyboard warriors to use. You have the Che Guevara t-shirt, the Keffiyeh, and now you can have your very own simplified, yet intelligent sounding, phrase of the revolution.
Do people honestly believe that if America stopped spending money on weapons and defence that the myriad socio-economical reasons why people find themselves living in Trailer parks would be resolved? Lyndon B. Johnston attempted a “war on poverty” and invested billions in Welfare and Government Programs. And while many of those programs are good and help people, the reality is governments cannot prevent poverty.
Of course they can, and should, help the poorest, but just throwing money at the problem wont stop poverty. And using Government power (Or to use the euphemism of Leninist politicians “Workers control”) to impose “equality” has been shown, by successive failures in the Warsaw Pact nations, to be ineffective and morally wrong.
The reality is, governments should stay out of the “ending poverty” business. Instead, they should offer a minimum basic income and comprehensive voucher systems to the poor/people under the minimum basic income. They cannot simply direct an economy in any way they wish. They must allow wealth creators the freedom to create the the jobs, They must allow schools and universities to be incentivised to produce the best results. Simply put, the government should stay out of the way, only there to ensure the vulnerable do not suffer.
Great point tony. Unfortunately democracy dictates generally that the better off people dictate the health and education of the poor people. You could argue that government should just solely focus on economic and foeign policy and let the masses find their own way. Unfortunately though when a small group of elected people forget their people and focus on economic and foreign policies we end up with bazi Germany or Soviet russia.
There are also some very upmarket trailer parks filled with $200,000 motor homes and $100,000 trailers. That’s the US, there are rich and poor, just like here, and we give €700,000,000 to overseas aid for no real result.
How do you go from trailer parks to bashing overseas aid in one sentence?
Alice Cooper has kept himself in great shape
This is such a condescending insulting portrayal of life in a trailor park. Would have been better if one of the residents had taken this guys camera and turned it on him to see what clueless, sanctimonious privelage looks like. He brought a taxidermied fox?! Because trailor park trash sleep with wild animals?
Are they all inbred ?
have your say