Sir, – The eight themes mentioned in Prof David Farrell’s article (“Speed over citizens’ convention key to reform process”, Opinion Analysis, June 2nd) will hardly achieve significant political reform.
Meaningful reform requires proper separation of the executive from the legislature, so that no member of the executive can remain a member of either Dáil or Seanad, and ensuring the proper autonomy of our local authorities in their areas of competency and function, this to include the right to raise and spend their own revenues – the principle of subsidiarity.
It is fashionable for intellectuals to blame the calibre of our politicians, especially local ones, for the faults of our political system. Yet the real fault lies in a pervasive communalism that reduces both politicians and people to the status of mendicants before an overly authoritarian and centralised national government. Far from being incompetent fools, our local politicians are skilled in exploiting that mendacity which the system imposes on us all, thus helping moderate the excesses of centralisation. They deserve our praise.
Seen in comparison with these issues, the eight themes are at best twee and at worst irrelevant. Who dreamed them up anyway? – Yours, etc,