Every Irish citizen, upon reaching the age of eighteen, shall undertake a period of national service, the form and duration of which shall be established by law. National service is not military conscription. It is an opportunity for every young person to contribute directly to the resilience, the culture, and the community of the nation — through participation in the food growing, community refectory, craft, construction, communications, and care programmes established elsewhere in this constitution, through environmental restoration work, through care for the elderly and vulnerable, and through service in the Defence Forces or An Garda Síochána for those who choose that path.
National service shall include practical training that builds the resilience of the nation and the competence of the individual: skills in food production and preservation, basic construction and repair, first aid and emergency response, traditional craft and culture, and civic knowledge of how the institutions of this constitution function and how a citizen may participate in them.
National service is a shared experience that brings together young people from every background, every part of the country, and every walk of life, to work alongside one another in service of the nation they will inherit. It is intended to build not only practical capability but a living sense of common citizenship.