The public disenchantment with politics has engendered a debate on whether our political system itself is fit for purpose. Last Friday’s Late Late Show questioned whether our electoral structure and Dáil can cope with the economic crisis.
TDs are being castigated as operating at parish pump level - spending their time at clinics, funerals, functions, and matches, instead of being national parliamentarians.
The calls for reform are not new. Commentators have continually advocated the abolition of the Senate, the reduction of 166 deputies and the ending of multi-seat proportional representation constituencies. It is argued that the present system encourages TDs to compete with party colleagues by over performing at local level.
As a former TD for more than 20 years, I would advise any wannabe politician to focus on the ‘Triple A’s.’ These are: Affability, Availability, and Approachability. Politics is a people business. You have got to connect personally on a one to one basis with your voters. If you don’t get enough votes you go into liquidation.
The present system insists that our TDs be people-pleasers. They are de facto social and community workers bridging the gap between their people/communities and state bureaucracy. Welfare entitlements, taxation problems, planning permission, housing allocations, road repairs, suckler cow grants, medical cards, pensions, passports, even Garda prosecutions are all grist to the mill.
This clientelism suits our politicians perfectly. It creates loyalty through favours delivered It prioritises an ability to ‘get things done’ and an overriding helpfulness to constituents. If you don’t do it, someone else will. The parish priest can be replaced by the curate. Politicians don’t think beyond the next election, for the very simple reason that if they lose out, it won’t matter to them any more.
All politics are local. Save your own hospital services at all costs – irrespective of the cost or regional health care quality implications. Grab your own decentralisation project regardless of whether it makes administrative sense or will rip off the tax payer. The allocation of a ministry is perceived as a political gift to that area. Constituency politics is about wearing the county jersey.
The commitment of our politicians is enormous. The hours of work, many of which are unsocial (at night and at weekends ) are unending. They feel insecure because they have no job insecurity. A lot of the work is repetitive, boring and soul destroying. Family life is entirely secondary to the political vocation.
I was not prepared to continue to live this lifestyle.
Decades of debate about political and electoral reform have been pointless. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. No incumbent will dismantle the system that serves their needs. Any realistic change will have to retain the key features of political representation based on geography and existing party structures. My proposal would be to adopt the German list system.
If applied to Ireland this would mean that we would keep 166 TDs and the present multi seat constituency system. The difference would be instead of all 166 TDs elected in the present way, a reserved amount of say 40 seats would be allocated from pre-selected lists of candidates from each party. For example if Fianna Fáil got 40 per cent of the national vote it would get 40 per cent from its list elected to the parliament, ie 16 seats.
If Labour got 20 per cent of the vote Labour would get its top eight from its national list elected. This would facilitate specialist experts to pursue a career in politics, without having obligations to any local constituency. The national percentage first preference vote of each party would more accurately reflect their representation in the Dáil.
Pending radical reform, we get the politicians we deserve, because we vote for them. To avoid gombeen politics, don’t vote for gombeens. Ability and professionalism of the candidate should be the highest criteria for voter selection.
