We need to change how we elect TDs

When I was a boy, the great political promises of the time were to revive the Irish language and to abolish the border. We are still waiting for those promises to be fulfilled.

 

Today, my grandchildren believe the politicians when they tell them they are going to reform the Dáil or the political system.

The Irish language and partition are no longer issues on which governments are formed or fall. They are there in the background somewhere. Most of us would like to see the former revived and the latter done away with but most of us are not going to lose a night’s sleep worrying about one or the other.

The same could be said about Dáil reform. We are not going to be too excited on this question one way or another. That, however, does not stop the political parties from making grandiose promises to carry out radical political reform as soon as they get into office.

Then, of course, it is easy to make promises when in opposition. The question is pushed aside once the party gets into power.

At best, once the party is elected, all you get are minor changes here and there but the basic system remains the same.

Fine Gael, for example, promised to reduce the number of TDs from 166 to 146. Now, however, they have decided to cut the number to 158. So much for major reform.

They also want to reduce the voting age from 18 to 17 and reduce the term of the presidency from seven years to five. Such big deals.

They told us when they were in opposition that the system was flawed and they promised to change it. They promised to abolish the Seanad. The jury is still out on that one.

Why would a government bother with reform anyway? Sure reform sounded grand in opposition. The system was keeping them out of government but the system eventually elected them. So why change it? If it’s not broken, why mend it?

So I don’t expect to see much change in the years ahead. We now see Fianna Fáil coming to the forefront in the campaign to force political reform. That’s because Fianna Fáil is now one of the small parties.

I recently visited both houses of the Oireachtas before the TDs and senators adjourned for their summer holidays. I already told you about the Seanad – that it hadn’t changed in at least 40 years. I can say the same about the Dáil. As a matter of fact, the lower house is, in some respects, worse than the Seanad.

There is some effort at debate in the Seanad. There is none in the Dáil. The norm there is for a TD or minister to read out from a prepared script to a largely empty house.

To a certain extent, the press can be blamed for that. Newspapers now have earlier deadlines and demand copy almost instantaneously. As often as not they need the speech before it has even been delivered. So the answer to that is the prepared script.

But in the earlier days of the Dáil and long before modern technology was thought about, there were lively debates in the Dáil between government and opposition deputies.

Some of the best speakers I heard in the Dáil in the past included the late John Kelly, former attorney general and Fine Gael TD for Dublin South and Des O’Malley, the founder of the PDs. I would not agree with much of what either said but by God they were able to say it. They didn’t need a prepared script. Speakers like those wouldn’t be long on their feet before the House filled up with other TDs coming in to the chamber to hear what they had to say.

Even if there were speakers like those in the Dáil today, the system would not allow them. The newspapers would want a copy of the speech in advance. You might get a copy of his speech from O’Malley or from Kelly but you might as well tear it up. It was only a poor copy of their spoken words. Neither could stick to a prepared script.

If you are talking about radical political reform, you have to talk about a complete change in how we elect our TDs and government. You are probably talking about doing away with multi-seat constituencies and having just one TD representing each constituency. That is because, as far as I can see, there is no other way to get rid of the parish pump politics which has ensured that the ‘cute hoors’ get elected and the brightest and best probably lose their deposits.

Most of the questions to ministers from other TDs relate to local rather than national issues. This is one example from the Dáil order paper of Wednesday, July 18 last, a day before the House adjourned for the summer. “To ask the minister the position regarding a carer’s allowance application in respect of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 7.”

The minister, in a written reply, confirmed that the department had received the application from the person in question. She [Joan Burton] said that “on completion of the necessary investigation relating to all aspects of the case” a decision would be reached and the person in question would be notified directly. That’s an answer that told the TD asking the question absolutely nothing he did not know already but he was able to send the constituent a copy of the reply he had from the minister showing that both he and the minister were dealing with the issue.

Don’t think I picked that one out as a special case. It was only chosen at random and it represents thousands of other similar questions and answers on the order paper. Other questions deal with various other payments, pensions, grants, allowances and whatever you are having yourself.
Each of these questions cost €200 to answer. There are about 50,000 of them lodged each year.

That’s about €10m a year. What a waste of time and money. The person is either entitled to the grant or isn’t.

The problem, however, is that we want our TDs to ask those types of questions and if our TD doesn’t, we will put another TD into the Dáil that will do so.

If we had just one TD in the Dáil per constituency, there would be less chance of that happening.
Our multi-seat system of proportional representation ensures we elect people who are good at the parish-pump stuff but have little interest in issues of national importance.

I think it is time for change. Let’s not consign the issue of Dáil reform to the same place where partition and the Irish language have been lying over the years.