Kenny calls for major reform

Ireland’s political system is broken and a radical overhaul is now needed to fix it, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed tonight.

In a speech to delegates at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, Mr Kenny said that efforts to kick-start the economy or to create a more just society will not be possible until political reform has been achieved.

“Our starting point is simple. The huge centralisation of power in Ireland is totally incompatible with a healthy republic and actively encourages inefficiency. Under the new politics, we will redistribute power from the Executive to the Oireachtas, from central to local government and from the bureaucracy to the citizens of our republic,” he said.

Mr Kenny said he was in favour of reducing the number of TDs by as many as 20 deputies and added that depending on the results of the next census in 2011 the number of TDs could be reduced, without requiring a constitutional amendment.

The Fine Gael leader also said he was in the process of appointing a transition team to oversee and plan the commencement of effective work for the next government.

“As Taoiseach I intend to be the enforcer of government decisions and policy: to make it happen in the nation’s interest.

“The Ministers who don’t measure up will be moved on and Ministers who abuse their positions will be dismissed.”

Mr Kenny said Fine Gael was “deeply concerned at the idea of Social Welfare cuts when so many other areas of public expenditure remain untouched and unreformed”.

In addition, he described the recently published An Bord Snip report as “a very valuable contribution to the national debate” but added that, “we also need to be very careful about assuming that it is the only way forward”.

“The need for fundamental reform has been amply demonstrated by the McCarthy report. It is an absolutely damning indictment of the way that Government has been run for the last decade,” said Mr Kenny.

“In one swoop the McCarthy Report has sidelined the hundreds of consultants’ reports that lie on department shelves, costly, unimplemented and now irrelevant and for which Minister after Minister deny any responsibility.

"The sheer volume of recommendations, many of which came from civil servants themselves, points to a complete failure of management and direction by this Government,” he added.