There  is a clear official context that gives you, the citizen, a right to participate and have your voice heard .  The reality of how this theory works in practise is another issue.

Frameworks for citizen participation are in place or coming into place, but the experience of those involved in Living Democracy is that there is a long way to go to turn what are mostly aspirations into real lived experience. It is up to us, as concerned  citizens, to be informed and to ensure that our right to participate is not only taken seriously but is welcomed as an essential ingredient to help us  plan our way through the challenging times ahead.

First there is an important constitutional context for citizen participation. Article 6 of the Irish Constitution states that:

"All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good.”

Since the early 1990s, frameworks for public participation have been emerging at every level- international, European, national and local.

The international framework stems from the 1992 “Earth Summit” when governments adopted the landmark Rio Declaration: its Principal 10 stresses that “ environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens”.

From this came Agenda 21 to provide a framework for a global plan of action to bring about sustainable development.

Then followed the Aarhus Convention,  signed by the UN in 1998 to create a unified legal framework that guarantees powerful rights to the citizens of Europe and Central Asia who are concerned about their environment.

There are EU Directives in place to implement Aarhus which when transposed into national law, should give these rights to Irish citizens.

At county and local level there are County and Local Development Plans which again provide an opportunity for citizens to have their say in shaping their world.

Why participate?

People used to think that in a democracy, all we had to do was elect the right leaders and they’d solve all our problems for us. Not so any more. As the impacts of decisions have such major consequences for people and planet, ordinary citizens are waking up to the reality that we need to have a say in what is happening.

In fact faced with the unprecedented challenges of the 21st century, it is increasingly clear that problems cannot be solved without the active participation of  all - citizens as well as formal decision makers - working together for the common good.

The more people who actively engage with the formal processes, the more the system will take the citizen's voice seriously. And the more likely we are to reach better decisions and better outcomes.