Referendums on 8th of March

Citizens assembly members are randomly selected. The guy you heard of may have been confused by the fact that a polling company is used to carry out the selection process on behalf of the government.
But it's not random, it was only after she had chatted with him about his response to a poll, so she was effectively doing the selection and it was based on her prejudices. Pollsters would generally be upper middle class therefore that's what's ending up on the citizens assembly.
 
Did they receive and respond to one of the 20k invitation letters prior to receiving the poll? Only those on the list were eligible to join.
 
Did they receive and respond to one of the 20k invitation letters prior to receiving the poll? Only those on the list were eligible to join.
Explain please, all news to me, so how are the 20k selected and how does that tie in with the polling company?

From the snap shots they show of the citizens assembly, they would generally be upper middle class, probably retired and have plenty of tme to devote to it, the young people on it are not holding down demanding 5 day week jobs or shift workers
 
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Explain please, all news to me, so how are the 20k selected and how does that tie in with the polling company?
A polling company was brought in to select 20k addresses randomly across the state. Letters were sent to those households inviting them to register their interest or otherwise on the selected topic. From the list of people who said they were interested, a further refinement was carried out aiming to achieve representation from across a number of criteria including age, socio-economic status, location, etc..
 
Are they doing exit polls today following the referendums, I know I have been critical of polls but the one poll that seems to stand up is the exit poll
 
Looks like a no vote, the pollsters got it wrong yet again, serious questions have to be asked about these polls now
Well in the end I voted no, no and Mrs C surprisingly voted no, no as well
Before we went out to vote late afternoon most as in 90% of the people we were in contact yesterday also voted no. no
Main reason given was although they wanted change they didn't fully understand what the wording actually meant !!
 
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Looks like a no vote, the pollsters got it wrong yet again, serious questions have to be asked about these polls now
On a poll like this they should have been asking people not just yes or no but decided yes / leaning yes / undecided / leaning no / decided yes
 
On a poll like this they should have been asking people not just yes or no but decided yes / leaning yes / undecided / leaning no / decided yes
And how are they selecting their sample of population, the sample is obviously too small and wrongly targeted.

I'd say that's the end of the citizens assembly, how can it be so at odds with the actual electorate
 
I’m happy that it looks like a No No but frustrated that they didn’t just get rid of the mother in the home reference and leave it at that.
 
Probably no general election this year now, all the ministers will be trying to hang onto power as long as possible,
Why didn't they bave a sensible referendum like removing the ridiculous quota for a td of 20 to 30k people. That's been the cause of them messing up historic constituency boundaries. If the uk had this stipulation they would have thousands of mps and they wouldn't fit into houses of Parliament.
Why are we running silly referendums but not ones that are practical and need to change. Maybe a vote on neutrality and nuclear energy is also required
 
And how are they selecting their sample of population, the sample is obviously too small and wrongly targeted.

I'd say that's the end of the citizens assembly, how can it be so at odds with the actual electorate
I don't know how much of this can be attached to the citizens assembly, as to how much at odds they were to the electorate. But it does suggest they are therefore not really adding anything of value. What was rejected by the electorate was the changes proposed by the government. The Citizens Assembly don't have the say on the wording of the changes. Entirely possible there would have been a majority for a different wording on both referenda. I don't think the electorate were against per se removing the "in the home" reference, or some sort of referendum on care.

Some other good analysis here via RTE:
Dr Laura Cahillane, Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Limerick said that a lot of people had concerns about the wording from the start. "That’s something that the Government should really look at."
She said that there appeared to be very little interest in listening to the concerns of people on the wording.
"Maybe there was a certain amount of arrogance in that they believed that people might get carried away on a wave of feminism on International Women’s Day and simply pass these two referendums. You saw very little campaigning on the Yes side, and very little efforts to reassure people about the wording and against all of these concerns arising on the No side."


 
Looks like Michael mcdowell after this success might be re entering politics, obviously filling a glaring gap whereby all the government parties and most of opposition out of line with electorate. Looks like a big gap in irish politics and Looks like there is a big market in that gap
 
Same with me, so even the aristocracy were NoNo. PaddyPower on Wednesday was betting even money on each being No, note didn't even require both. I really should have bet the castle on either or both Nos.
 
The danger is it’s filled with bigoted nutters, racists and xenophobes with their own right wing version of the kind of mindless populism that’s made the Shinners the biggest party in the country.
 
23 million euro absolutely wasted and SF doubled down in Feb pledging to rerun this blasted referendum if it failed....Anecdotally I've heard Eamon Ryan supposedly claim yesterday that it would be rerun (if Greens form part of next Govt).

These people are utterly delusional, all they are short of is applying clown paint prior to doing interviews.

 
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A lot of people who voted No/No want it to be re-run with better wording and a more informative campaign.

It is mystifying to see the melodrama over a govt that is actively trying to improve the Constitution rather than maintain the status quo. It would be much easier for them to try to move on from this and just leave those affected behind for another decade.

It's a democracy, if there is a repeat people can vote No/No again.

You can tell your TDs not to re-run it. You can also choose not to vote for any party that would re-run it (Renua will be glad of the extra ballot).