Madam, – Michael Drury writes that “parliamentarians could be forbidden to make representations on behalf of individual constituents” (October 28th). Although I appreciate the noble intent of Mr Drury to make a more efficient public administration, banning constituents from approaching their public representatives is hardly going to enhance the democratic process. Clientelism does feature a lot of repetitive representations from various TDs on behalf of the same individual, but on occasion individual cases do show up bureaucratic injustices and cover-ups that affect the wider society.
Mr Drury is right to point out that scrapping the Seanad without reforming the Dáil would be futile. The elephant in the corner that not only Mr Drury, but many commentators in this paper ignore is the electorate. Persistently seats are won and lost on the basis of who “is good on the ground”. Although the Ireland of today is better educated, with more citizens more capable of engaging with the bureaucracy than in decades past, the electorate still persists in supporting candidates who have a visible presence in constituencies and who are easily accessible.
Banning representations would not change this, as voters would still use these criteria as the primary reason for selecting their members of parliament.
Clientelism is indeed a distraction from the job of being a legislator, but the election of a local TD in inextricably linked to this. Although a general election is supposed to be a national election, in reality the majority of the electorate hear the question that is put before them as “who do we a elect to as our local representative?” – not “who do we elect as a good legislator?”.
The way to change this is not to ban citizens from engaging with their members of parliament, but to change the electoral system to facilitate a national election rather than a series of local contests.
A national list system would allow the nation as a whole to adjudicate on the type of policies their government should pursue, while in practice freeing legislators from the competition of serving constituents in multi-seat local constituencies.
A list system does not preclude Independent deputies, it just means Jackie Healy Rae would have to put himself before the nation as a whole rather than his neighbours in South Kerry. As Donal Casey put it succinctly (Opinion, October 24th) “We need a new job description for our legislators – one that doesn’t involve potholes and all manner of other local services and issues. We need a new recruitment process”.
Scrapping our multi-seat PR-STV electoral system, not banning constituents from contacting their members of parliament would enhance our national democracy. – Yours, etc,