Our Constitution

Convention on the Constitution

The Convention on the Constitution comprised 100 people, representative of irish society and parliamentarians from the island of Ireland, with an independent Chairman.

The Convention was setup by Resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas to consider and make recommendations on certain topics as possible future amendments to the Constitution.

For its part, the Government undertook to respond to the Convention’s recommendations within four months by way of debates in the Oireachtas and where it agreed with a particular recommendation to amend the Constitution, to include a timeframe for a referendum.

Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference of the Constitutional Convention are detailed in the Resolution of the Houses of the Oireachtas of July, 2012.

Members

Members of the Oireachtas

Political parties and groups in the Dáil and the Seanad nominated representatives on the basis of their relative strengths in the Oireachtas. Political parties in Northern Ireland were invited to nominate one representative each.

Members of the Public

Citizens were selected randomly using the electoral register and on the basis of groups representative of Irish society generally and balanced in terms of gender, age and region, etc.

Click here for list of Convention Members.

Click here for Convention Members Selection Process.

Convention Documents