Former taoiseach not in favour of electoral reform

FORMER TAOISEACH John Bruton has said he is not in favour of any change to Ireland’s existing electoral system.

Mr Bruton, now chairman of the International Financial Services Centre Ireland, maintained the current electoral system worked because it kept politicians in touch with the people.

He believed that the absence of social unrest, unlike in countries such as Greece, was a result of the electorate feeling closer to their politicians in Ireland.

He had learned “an awful lot” from constituents and even Fianna Fáil supporters who had come to his clinics and the replacement with single-seat constituencies would leave many people without a representative with whom they could relate. He rejected the idea of a list system or one similar to the British electoral system which allows parties to parachute candidates into safe seats. “If you had an elitist electoral system where the only people you meet were people like yourself, you would not have the same access to life experiences that proportional representation gives our politicians,” he said.

In response to a caller on the Today with Pat Kenny show who accused him of being part of an out-of-touch elite, Mr Bruton responded: “One of the reasons I support the existing electoral system is that it would require me to meet a person like that coming in to see me from time to time.

“Irish people do know who their local politician is and feel they can approach him or her and say what they think.”

Mr Bruton admitted he had not tried to carry out political reform when he was taoiseach.

“I’ve thought about it a lot since, though,” he said. “One of the big problems we have had are the tribunals, very expensive tribunals, to get information about what is being done by people involved in public administration.”

Ireland was a country where civil servants proposed the legislation and used the Dáil and the executive to have it enacted.

“At the present time, the Oireachtas is run by the executive, which in turn is, in a sense, run by the Civil Service.

“We have a sort of Civil Service-led system of administration which uses the Dáil and the Senate as a delivery mechanism.”