The Irish Citizens’ Assembly

In September 2025, Jon hosted a live event in Dublin exploring the past, present and future of one of the most exciting democratic experiments of recent times. Over the last 15 years, Ireland's Citizens' Assembly has brought nearly 600 randomly selected citizens together to deliberate on issues from abortion to marriage equality to biodiversity, before making recommendations to elected officials. Join us as we delve into what happened, how, and why - and ask whether this approach could help save democracy all over the world.

David Farrell is Chair of Politics at UCD and was part of the original We The Citizens project that preceded the Irish Constitutional Convention and the Citizens’ Assembly.

Art O'Leary is chief executive at An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the Electoral Commission of Ireland, the management and oversight organisation for electoral and wider democracy matters, and Secretary to the Citizens’ Assembly.

Louise Caldwell is one of the randomly selected citizens to have taken part in the Assembly, and has since joined the board of People Powered, the global advocacy organisation for participatory democracy.

Chapters

• (00:00:03) - Becoming a Citizens Assembly member
• (00:01:19) - Irish Citizens Assembly
• (00:05:20) - Citizens Assembly
• (00:13:28) - The Irish Citizens Assembly
• (00:16:39) - Citizens' Assembly
• (00:17:55) - Citizens Assembly and the Ireland referendum
• (00:25:48) - Ireland's first Citizens Assembly
• (00:33:31) - What is the Citizen Assembly
• (00:39:18) - Citizens Assembly: The best cure for polarization
• (00:43:42) - Citizens Assembly and the future
• (00:51:23) - The German Community Parliament's Citizens Assembly
• (00:58:33) - Citizens Assembly: The Safe Space for Democracy
• (01:03:48) - How to Save Democracy