Ok....the government is unravelling and rightly so. I'm not going over the reasons or what got us here because personally I'm sick of hearing about it but in the interests of this Country of ours and our people we need to look a little more closely at how Ireland needs to shape up for the future. I'm not talking about financially either, as we have ceded that right to bigger, international agencies and it's outside of our control, in honesty.
So what am I talking about then? I'm talking about the fundamentals. How do we run our country. How do we elect those will run our country. How we 'do' our politics. Anyone who has followed this blog for a while will know that I believe that the political system we have here is broken; not fit for purpose - and so it has turned out to be.
We elect the nice guys, the guys we know, the guy we've perhaps always voted for (or his son!), the guys who (say they) got the house for your daughter or maybe the guy who (says he) sorted out your medical card. I use the word 'say' because the reality is that nobody can get you anything that you are not entitled to in your own right. Not a TD, a Councillor or even the Taoiseach himself. If you qualify, you qualify and that should be the way it is. A country that doles out favours on the basis of who-you-know is one that we should have no aspiration to be a part of in the grand scheme of things.
And what kind of service are we running if you need a TD to get you a medical appointment? That is ridiculous, wicked politics. What your TD ought to be doing is ensuring that our health, welfare and social services run efficiently, and fairly and in a timely manner so that people are delivered their rights as a matter of course and in a prompt and courteous way.
But no, they are happy to run around, like an errand boy, doing favours in order to get your vote. Is this really the way to ensure that we get the best people, with their heads in the game and focused on how best to run this tiny country with a big reputation? No is the answer. It isn't.
So we need to change it. And having a General Election - much as I welcome the opportunity to give FF a good kicking as much as the next person - will not deliver that change. We will change the bums on seats but not the country and we will still deliver up the same old faces, working the same old system, with only one thing in mind - and that is to hold onto their own seats.
So what would that change look like? Well, I don't profess to have all the answers but it must do a few things in my opinion. It must take the focus off individual TD's and put it onto policies and politics. It must make TD's less dependant on small numbers of votes and it must allow for talented people to enter the system. I'm not sure any or even some of this is possible. But it is the only way to make sure that Ireland is equipped for the future.
In most of Europe they use a 'list system' to elect their local and national governments - so, my party fights your party. And if my team wins, the people on my 'list' get in and if your team wins then it's your list. It puts the focus onto policies rather than people and also delivers a better 'team' approach with more balance in terms of skills, women, and leaders.
We need, it goes without saying, fewer TD's. About 66 should be enough I would think. (Perhaps we could reach that in stages - I'm thinking of turkeys and Christmas here!) That would give a much larger electorate meaning that the focus could not be on the mundane or the minuscule. That would have to be left - as it should be - to local politicians. This would make TD's less vulnerable to local self-interest issues and much more capable of working in the National interest.
The list system would also allow for bright people - who perhaps might not want to fight elections - but who have a hell of a lot to offer this country, to be brought into where they are needed.
But what do we want as a country? Do we want things to be the same? (I suspect yes.) Do we want proper leadership, with talented TD's focused on running the country? (I suspect not.) Even though almost everyone I speak to calls for 'proper leadership' - nobody actually, really wants it. They want things to go on the way they always have. I suspect there will be a low turn out for the next elections. I suspect that will suit the 'same old' heads. I suspect we have no appetite to really change and grow as a Country....but I live in hope that I am wrong.
And so I ask 'we the people': what do you want? I question that sacred cow that any politician must not question if he or she values their own seat: the electorate. What do you want? Do you want and modern, nimble, can do country that puts the people of Ireland first - as a people? That sometimes tells us things we don't want to hear? That guides the ship of state away from 'pothole land' and into a proper republic? That takes the tough decisions that 'the locals' don't like. That spends our resources wisely and not on the basis of getting them re-elected?
I can't answer the questions myself. But I know what I fear. Perhaps I shall have my question answered sooner than I think.
We need to re-think our politics, our republic, our country. Or else the only thing positive that may come out of all this mess - which is the opportunity to change a broken system, consciously, mindedly, together and rationally - will pass and will be lost.
A General Election will not do that. Will anyone - and does anyone want to even try? I, for one, do. I feel I should be calling people who are like-minded to action. The sensible, silent, thinking majority. The people who despair at the rent-a-picketers and those who are calling for disruptions and civil disobedience! They are only distractions. Thinking a General Election is the solution or can deliver a solution is deluded at best and completely infantile at worst!
I want to say lets get this conversation going. But alas I fear it wouldn't even be heard. So I'm putting it out there. These are big questions and we are in a time of great opportunity for ourselves if we can answer them. But who is willing. Who.....
3 comments:
Brilliant piece, but i cant see whoever is in power after an election be in any rush to give us the chance to change things. Right now whether people want to admit it, all parties that sit in Leinster House are as bad as each other.
This is a very important discussion Mary, and it's great that you are taking the lead by starting it.
One of the biggest problems that has to be addressed is the power of vested interests that want to keep the status quo.
We saw this most clearly on a national basis with the RISE campaign. This was a front organisation that was funded by powerful interests who wanted to send a message to the establishment parties that they had the power to mobilise people, and to threaten to take votes away from them. They protested outside political meetings, lobbied politicians, and pushed their agenda to the stage where it almost brought down the Government - including causing the Labour Party to backtrack on a policy it had strongly supported for years.
Another example was the editorial in the Irish Independent on election day in 1997.
"For years they have been robbing us blind, now its payback time"
This was a clarion cry for people to vote FOR Fianna Fail.
The story behind this headline relates to the MMDS licence that Ray Burke gave to Tony O'Reilly, and which was in competition with the deflector TV systems that were located all over the Country. Tony O'Reilly wanted a certain course of action; John Bruton said "maybe"; Bertie said "no problem"; The Irish Independent came out with that ludicrous editorial, and we are where we are.
(and Bertie never did deliver for Sir Tony)
Locally, we could talk about the campaign waged against Brendan McCann by wealthy developers, and businesses and people who made their living providing services to them. They had a financial interest in making their projects fly, and they put huge resources into discrediting someone who stood in their way.
So, to address your conversation directly - if we are to design a new system that gives more power to the people, and gives the people what they want, how do we ensure that small minorities with vested interests and deep pockets are not able to control public discussion, and not able to use their wealth and position to persuade ordinary people that black is white?
Mary,
We also need a radical restructuring of our local government. For instance, it's ludicrous that Kilkneeny County Council are responsible for the northern side of Waterford City. Limerick city is spread over 3 counties. We are still running the system the British left behind a 100 years ago.
County councils could be replaced with regional authorities, and city councils should have wider scope around their city areas. The TKMAX debacle is a case where the city's policies were being undermined by the county, on the city's very doorstep.
We need a huge restructuring to create local authority areas which match the demographics as they are, not as they were 100 years ago.
We also need to fund these new local authorities in a rational, understandable way. People need to know that local taxes are for local purposes and need to hold their local councillors to account for their expenditure of same.
A property tax should replace the stupid, mis-named bin & water charges, though with meters water charges will remain, but the money raised should go to local authorities.
There should be a national purchasing scheme whereby all local authorities' regular items are bought in bulk at discount and delivered locally as required.
There should be a national employment scheme for local authorities with one main HR unit,one main pay unit (grades & conditions would have to be unified nationally)one IT support unit, supplemented with local staff as appropriate.
Just a few ideas for you.
John Collins
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