President Michael D Higgins called on people to participate in the upcoming Convention on the Constitution 
during his inaugural address at Dublin Castle today.
The convention was party of the Labour party manifesto and became part of the Programme for Government. One of the areas the convention will examine is the section of the Constitution dealing with the family with a view to possibly paving the way towards same-sex marriage.
President Higgins said: “Next year Bunreacht na hÉireann is 75 years old and a Constitutional Convention is planned by Government.
“As President, I encourage all citizens, of all ages, at home and abroad to take the opportunity of engaging with this important review as an opportunity to reflect on where we have come from and on how we might see ourselves into the future.”
He also flagged again his intention to hold a number of Presidency Seminars to “reflect and explore themes important to our shared life” such as “the restoration of trust in our institutions, the ethical connection between our economy and society, the future of a Europe built on peace, social solidarity and sustainability”.
He said the first seminar will focus on “being young in Ireland” and will address topics like “participation, employment, emigration and mental health”.
President Higgins praised the sort of individualism that gives rise to creativity, but he said that “in more recent years we saw the rise of a different kind of individualism – closer to an egotism based on purely material considerations – that tended to value the worth of a person in terms of the accumulation of wealth rather then their fundamental dignity”.
He continued: “That was our loss, the source in part, of our present difficulties. Now it is time to turn to an older wisdom that, while respecting material comfort and security as a basic right of all, also recognises that many of the most valuable things in life cannot be measured.”