ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on how constitutional reform occurs in Ireland, and its increasing regularity over the past 25 years. It examines recent, and ongoing, efforts at constitutional reform. The chapter discusses constitutional reform that took shape in the Irish Constitutional Convention of 2012–14. It expresses that the Convention was a bid by the government parties to not only include the citizens to a greater extent than heretofore in referendum decision-making but also to allow some potentially divisive decision-making to be outsourced. The chapter deals with the content of the constitutional reforms that were attempted throughout the period of the last government, most of which were passed successfully. It also discusses how the range and variety of constitutional reform show no sign of abating: more referendums are promised, and the practice of including citizens within a deliberative framework, the Irish Citizen Assembly, similar to the Irish Constitutional Convention is being repeated by the new government elected in spring 2016.