Latest Fiasco At Citizens Assembly Confirms Unrepresentative Bias – Mattie McGrath
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said that the latest recruitment fiasco concerning the recruitment of members for the Citizens Assembly confirms that the entire process was an utter fraud. Deputy McGrath was speaking after the Chair of the Assembly, Justice Mary Laffoy confirmed that seven of the new members “had been recruited in a manner which did not comply with the agreed methodology for recruitment of Assembly members:”
“I have been saying from the very start of this ridiculous and transparent charade that there were systemic problems with the Assembly in terms of its representative nature.
Now we have confirmation that a single recruiter acting on behalf of the Red C polling company deliberately selected preferential candidates.
We also have it confirmed from an internal audit performed by Red C that it was going to be next to impossible for the 99 members to be representative of ‘citizens’ views.
This is exactly what I and others have been saying for years now.
Incidentally, this also raises serious questions around Justice Laffoy herself, who spent much of her opening session to the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment defending the selection and methodology process of the Assembly.
What we have here is the smoking gun in terms of the unrepresentative and undemocratic nature of the Assembly. It also confirms that we are under no obligation to take any of the conclusions of this cooked up and sham process seriously,” concluded Deputy McGrath.
