Sir, – The work that the We The Citizens group (Opinion Analysis, July 18th-20th) has carried out researching the views of the people on political reform is laudable, and many of the ideas are interesting, but one result from the survey is of concern.
Many people feel the fact that our TDs provide a “local service” is a “strength” in the electoral system.
But surely the local nature of Irish politics is one of the reasons the country is in the mess it is in? Surely it would make far better sense to grant the democratically elected county councils more power and thus make them more relevant to the people and therefore be more able to provide a good “local service”?
Under this scenario, the Dáil would be left to function as a proper national parliament, which is the general idea, and its members left to deal with national issues. Consider the demands we currently make of our TDs, including dealing with potential national bankruptcy while looking after the footpath outside Joe Bloggs’s house.
It is unreasonable to expect TDs to pay sufficient attention to our serious national problems if we persist in distracting them with local issues. The days of the Dáil functioning as an oversized county council chamber should be long gone. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I have mixed feelings on the merits of the We The Citizens initiative, given that we the citizens have only just had a general election. However, Fiach Mac Conghail drove home how such an initiative is doomed to perish on the rock of parochial Irish political culture.
That over half of voters believe “the ability of TDs to provide a local service is a strength of the political system” goes to show that no matter how much you try to alter the system, by scrapping the Seanad or reducing the number of TDs, the odds are that much of the electorate will still elect parochial and unscrupulous ward heelers.
It reminds me of Pat Rabbitte’s comment, “It’s all very well to cut the number of TDs by half, the question is which half you will be left with.”
We The Citizens may be a well-intentioned project, but unless it is prepared to persuade the electorate as a whole rather than a hand-picked few, it is as irrelevant as the Seanad. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Well done to the good Senator Fiach Mac Conghail and his academic back-room boffins for their analysis that somehow “we the citizens” thought of all these economic cuts and now accept them as necessary. If this is somehow an example of representative, grassroots democracy, then I can only conclude we are due a fine season of humour and irony at the Abbey.
“We” already have a process for communicating and making policy designs known. Just ask the Fianna Fáil party. No funding from outside the State required either. – Yours, etc,