Sir, – The opinion piece by Cora Sherlock on March 15th regarding the working of citizens' assemblies offers interesting insights into her experience of participating in one such body ("TDs have to stop offloading their work to citizens' assemblies", Opinion & Analysis, March 15th).
She makes valuable points about the importance, and potential drawbacks, of the ways in which the membership is selected and she emphasises how important it is that elected representatives retain ultimate responsibility for legislation.
It is, of course, essential that the selection of participants be transparent and stands up to scrutiny. There is, however, an element of a straw-man argument in her main thesis – that the Dáil should not be offloading contentious political decisions to any citizens’ assembly.
In Ireland, legislative changes following on such deliberations have only been enacted following referendums, examination by parliamentary committees, and Dáil votes.
Citizens’ assemblies recognise the fact that human life is messy and chaotic at times. Many of the decisions that people face, especially those dealing with deeply felt values and moral issues, offer no clear-cut answers; at least they don’t offer the same answers to everybody. If they did we would have no such things as moral dilemmas. Ms Sherlock’s experience surely reflects the reality of that messiness and uncertainty and we should be applauding the value of this rather than being dismissive.
Many people are, understandably, deeply unhappy at the ultimate outcome of some deliberative processes in which citizens’ assemblies have played a part, but that is a reality that we must learn to live with if we are to avoid majoritarianism. We can only do our best to ensure that the freedoms we grant to some do not force others into unacceptable choices. Sometimes compromise is the only sustainable outcome, but such sustainability must be seen as a process, constantly to be tweaked in the light of experience, rather than a fixed for all time decision.
Ms Sherlock’s direct experience provides us with valuable insights into the proceedings of citizens’ assemblies but perhaps not for the reasons she intended. So maybe what we need is more recourse to citizens assemblies, not less! – Yours, etc,
JOHN CASEY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.