Convention numbers don’t add up

■ I share the concerns of Mattie McGrath and Rónán Mullen regarding the Constitutional Convention but for different reasons.

The concept of a public forum for constitutional issues has merit in terms of broadening debate outside the narrow confines of the Oireachtas. However, it is the technical aspects of its composition

that bothers me. First off, the idea of

33 seats reserved for politicians is completely excessive. It is disproportionate that one third of the seats are allocated to the Oireachtas – which already has its own forum. Seasoned politicians could, and I emphasise the word ‘could’, be overpowering and dilute contributions from the general public. Surely all that was required was a facilitator, maybe a senior judge like Mary Laffoy, the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil and the Seanad and perhaps one nominee from each of the parties?

Secondly, any basic understanding of statistics would suggest that a selection of 66 from a population of

3,510,069 over the age of 18 (Source: Census 2016) is not sufficient to render the sample truly representative. It is 35-plus years since I did statistics at college but using some of the online survey tools, a sample of 385 would be required to give a 95pc confidence in the sample with a plus or minus 5pc margin of error. Discounting the 33 who cannot be regarded as representative, the remaining 66 only give an 80pc confidence with a

plus or minus 6pc margin of error.

The sample is too small and is disproportionately filled with professional politicians.

Frank Buckley

Tullamore, Co Offaly