The Government’s Constitutional Convention is set to convene later this month to discuss changing the voting 
age and the length of the term of the presidency.
The issues will be examined by the Convention’s 100-member panel during a two-day assembly on Jan 26 and 27 at the Grand Hotel, Malahide, Dublin, the Irish Examiner reports.
Over the next year the Convention will consider a number of controversial issues, including same-sex marriage and the blasphemy provision.
Academic experts are lined up to speak to politicians as well as ordinary citizens.
University College Cork political scientist Theresa Reidy will brief members on the issue of reducing the voting age to 17.
Robert Elgie, head of Dublin City University’s law school, will outline issues on the possibility of reducing the term of the presidency from seven years.
The convention is made up of politicians and ordinary citizens.
Some 66 of the 99 delegates to the Convention are “citizen members” and the remaining 33 delegates comprise politicians from the Oireachtas and the Northern Ireland Assembly. One representative of each Northern party sits on the Convention with the Oireachtas representation reflecting party strength.
According to the Programme for Government, the Convention is set to look at proposals to legalise same-sex marriage, removing the clause which refers to women in the home and removing the offence of blasphemy.
It will also examine proposals regarding the Dáil electoral system and letting emigrants vote in presidential elections.
Hearings of the convention will be screened live online on www.constitution.ie while focus groups discussions later on the weekend will be held in private.
The Government has promised to decide within four months of each issue being discussed whether to hold a referendum or not.