The Convention on the Constitution () was established in Ireland in 2012 to discuss proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland. More commonly called simply the Constitutional Convention, it met for the first time 1 December 2012 and sat until 31 March 2014. It had 100 members: a chairman; 29 members of the Oireachtas (parliament); four representatives of Northern Ireland political parties; and 66 randomly selected citizens of Ireland.
The convention was mandated to consider eight specified issues, and also selected two others to discuss. The government was not obliged to proceed with any amendment proposal, but committed to respond formally to each recommendation and debate it in the Oireachtas. , the government had formally responded to all nine of the convention's reports, and put three of its proposals to referendum. Two of those referendums took place on 22 May 2015: to mandate legal same-sex marriage and to reduce the age of eligibility for the presidency from 35 to 21. The former was accepted, and the latter rejected. A third referendum was passed on 26 October 2018 to remove the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution.
Operation
The convention was established pursuant to resolutions in each house of the Oireachtas in June 2012. It was to meet on at least eight Saturdays over the course of a year. The inaugural meeting was on 1 December 2012 at Dublin Castle, and working sessions begin in late January 2013, with later sessions being held elsewhere in the state and in Northern Ireland.
The plenary sessions were open to the public, and streamed live. The convention's secretariat was called the Constitutional Convention Office, led by civil servants from the Department of the Taoiseach. The Secretary was Art O’Leary, previously Director of Committees, Information and Communications of the Oireachtas, who was on secondment to the Department of the Taoiseach. The research was led by the Academic and Legal Research Group, made up of David Farrell, Jane Suiter, Eoin O'Malley, Clodagh Harris and Lia O'Hegarty.
Agenda
The establishing resolution set the following agenda items:
reducing the presidential term of office to five years and aligning it with the local and European elections; reducing the voting age to 17; review of the Dáil electoral system; giving citizens resident outside the State the right to vote in presidential elections at Irish embassies, or otherwise; provision for same-sex marriage; amending the clause on the role of women in the home and encouraging greater participation of women in public life; increasing the participation of women in politics; removal of the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution; and following completion of the above reports, such other relevant constitutional amendments that may be recommended by it
The first two items were to be considered first, with recommendations due for report to the Oireachtas within two months of the convention's first meeting. The other specified issues were considered in turn until November 2013, and two other issues were then chosen, Dáil reform and Economic, social and cultural rights.
Members
Chair
The chairman was appointed by the Government. Finding a suitable willing candidate took longer than expected. On 24 October 2012, it was announced that the chairman would be Tom Arnold, an economist who is chief executive of the charity Concern and chair of the trust which runs The Irish Times newspaper. Arnold is being paid for his work, and was to step down from his role at Concern in 2013 as the convention's workload increases.
In January 2014, Arnold addressed the Seanad on the convention's work to date. He listed the principles under which it operated as openness, fairness, equality of voice, efficiency, and collegiality.
Citizens
The 66 random citizens were chosen by a polling company to reflect the age, regional, and gender balance of the electorate. For each of the 66, a similar-profile alternate was also selected.
In the case of citizen members, only their names and county or Dublin postal district were published, rather than their full postal address. This was agreed after the polling company, Behaviour and Attitudes, reported that some of those selected were worried about being "bombarded" by lobbyists and pressure groups.