Cabinet Approves "Citizens' Assembly" Abortion Ploy
29.06.2016
The cabinet has agreed to set up a Citizens’ Assembly, Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s preferred method of bringing about a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment. At a meeting on 21st June, the Taoiseach brought a memo to Cabinet on the establishment of the assembly, and the government agreed that the group will have 100 members and will be chaired by “an appropriate person”, possibly a retired judge. The first meeting of the assembly is planned to take place in November.
A polling company will be commissioned to select members of the assembly and €200,000 in funding has been allocated from the Taoiseach's Department.
Once the Assembly formulates its recommendations, these will be passed to an all-party Oireachtas committee for consideration. A decision to hold a referendum will have to be passed by the full Dáil.
The citizens’ assembly process will be presented as the government’s response to a UN committee that recently pressured Ireland to make abortion more widely available.
RTÉ. June 21. Family & Life. June 29.