Citizens' Assembly (Ireland)

The Eighth Amendment, 2016 to 2018 The assembly most often held up as proof the model works. Ninety-nine citizens and a chair, former Supreme Court judge Mary Laffoy, voted 79 to 12 that the constitutional ban on abortion should not be retained in full, and preferred to let the Oireachtas legislate. A parliamentary committee built on that work, and on May 25, 2018, 66.4 percent of voters approved repeal; the abortion law was signed that December. The same assembly's climate recommendations, each passed by at least 80 percent of members, fed a committee report the Dáil endorsed in May 2019, when it declared a climate and biodiversity emergency.