Selection of members

The Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use includes an independent Chairperson and 99 members of the general public, selected using a stratified random selection process based on the GeoDirectory of households across the country.

Any adult who is resident in the State was eligible to become a member of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use. This includes people who are not Irish citizens and others who are not enrolled on the electoral register. This helps to ensure that the membership is as broadly representative of Irish society as possible.

In line with international best practice, recruitment of members was done by distributing a postal campaign to 20,000 households across Ireland. One member from each of the 20,000 households across the country was invited to register their intertest to participate in the Assembly. It is essential that the members of the assembly are reflective of the demographics of Irish society. Therefore, members are selected in accordance with most up-to-date census data, aligning with factors such as age, gender, geographic location and socio-economic status.

This stratified random selection process ensures that the 99 members of the general public selected to participate in the Citizens’ Assembly are broadly reflective of the population of Ireland. This updated methodology was introduced for the two assemblies that took place in 2022 and has proved to be effective in creating an assembly that accurately reflects the demographics of the Irish population.

If you were one of the 20,000 households to receive an invitation letter to join the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use, the registration of interest stage has closed and the Assembly is underway.