Madam, – It is encouraging to watch the rising level of commentary on the lack of leadership and political inertia that prevails in our country – perhaps it will ultimately lead to the revolution we so badly need.
This has been, in part, provoked by some fine articles in The Irish Timesrecently (Dan O'Brien, November 7th, 2009, Declan Kiberd, and Fiach Mac Conghail, Renewing the Republic, March 13th 15th). These articles are dancing around the same thing – our system of governance has failed us and will continue to fail unless we change it. By governance I mean the politicians and the civil service. It has failed because we have too many TDs and their sense of responsibility and leadership qualities have been distilled to worthless proportions.
Our public service has, perhaps sub-consciously and in a corporate way, exploited the lack of political authority to become self-serving and unaccountable.
The public, having lost confidence in the system, readily subscribes to initiatives like the Ideas Campaign in 2009, more recently the Farmleigh think-in, and, latest of all, Your Country, Your Call. The first two initiatives have come to nothing and the latest will be forgotten in six months. Yes, good ideas have and will come out of the initiatives, but our system has an impenetrable shield around it to protect itself from new ideas and technology, lest they might force change or make downsizing the obvious course of action.
Deep down, the people at the heart of governance believe they know best and we, the citizens, must be protected from change – just as the Catholic Church leadership believes. They have been raised in a hierarchical culture that has survived thus far without need to make any significant change. Enda Kenny proposes change – some good and some bad but his package will make little difference because he has not cut to the core. His petitions idea is good, but abolishing the Seanad would be a grave error. If Mr Kenny were to properly distil our problems he would see that a good deal of our trouble stems from the idea that “all politics is local”.
Our politicians are forced to live and act by this credo and are permanently locked in survival mode. They have no time for national issues and almost always have to put their party before their country.
We have a population of circa 132,000 in Co Kerry and we send no fewer than six TDs to the Dáil – a TD for each 22,000 head of population – it makes no sense! In an election, each TD is fighting for a quota of about 9,200 in a turnout of 66 per cent. There is no margin for error and the politician who might miss a large funeral could find himself short the all important last dozen votes. This is largely true for all TDs and the net result is that, in their absence, while they attend at the parish pump, the civil service have the levers of power firmly in their grasp.
We need to slim down our Dáil, to empower and give our TDs time to govern and react to situations in a brisk and business like manner – to carry out the will of the people in a true republican manner. We need to divide the number of TDs by two – reduce the Dáil to 83. This is the revolution people are beginning to talk about and now is the time to have it.
Politician-speak of Dáil reform that does not go this far is but a manifestation of the sclerosis Damien Kiberd recently wrote about. In an 83-member Dáil, TDs would find it easier to leave local politics to their local organisations and would have to rely on their national contribution as a basis for re-election. It would result in the emergence of a breed of TD with obvious leadership qualities with a strong sense of direction and little need for spin-doctors or a team of costly advisers. We have always needed such people to lead us and now more than ever.
Rather than disenfranchising, a reduction in the number of TDs would return real power to the people and give us a legislature that will ultimately command our respect.
Perhaps Declan Kiberd or Dan O’Brien would employ Enda Kenny’s idea (I doubt he would himself?) and start the petition – revolution now! – Yours, etc,