On the Adjournment: With the Oireachtas and Drapier on holiday, this column has been handed over to backbenchers. This week Fianna Fail's Billy Kelleher TD defends a voting system he says has served us well
I was disturbed to read recent media reports that there are plans to reduce the number of TDs in Dáil Éireann.
On two occasions Irish governments have tried to use referendums to change the electoral system to their own perceived advantage. The people on both occasions frustrated their intentions. The 1959 result inspired The Irish Times in a leader writer's comment to enthuse that "Irish democracy has come of age; its political maturity is no longer in doubt".
The issue at stake was the abolition of proportional representation, and its replacement by a simplified system. Fianna Fáil under de Valera strongly favoured change, due to a perception that Fianna Fáil might be unable to retain its majority appeal after the retirement of its founder leader. The referendum was a final attempt by de Valera to "guard against the consequences of fickle popular opinion" (Lee, 1989, p.330).
Interestingly, the referendum in 1959 was to be held on the same day as the presidential election, in which de Valera was a candidate. The prevailing view was that his very presence on the ballot would be enough to carry the day. He won the presidency, but lost the referendum by 48.2 per cent of the vote. The result was a surprise, but in fact there had been no popular agitation for change.
Nine years later Jack Lynch had a similar proposition defeated by 60.8 per cent to 39.2 per cent.
The system of proportional representation by single transferable vote (PR-STV) predates the foundation of the Irish Free State. The abortive Home Rule Bill in 1912 contained certain features of PR-STV.
In 1919, PR-STV was used for the municipal elections to Sligo Corporation and local elections the following year saw the extension of the electoral system. Ultimately the Government of Ireland Act (1920) would provide for an election to the parliament of the Republic by PR-STV.
The system has the great advantage of minimising the "wasted" vote:
The voter has the opportunity to express preferences within as well as between and across - and even beyond - party boundaries
The system ends safe seats for any individual
It renders tactical voting redundant.
The reason TDs spend 90 per cent of their time doing local constituency work, rather than being involved in national policies, is because they have to.
The voters of Cork North Central want me to be in touch personally with them. I am the person they go to over planning permissions, medical cards, local authority houses, grants, or headage payments. I carry out these duties in addition to national politics.
And thanks to PR-STV, but particularly our multi-member constituencies, my voters can play off three, four or five TDs and a couple of councillors against each other to see who can "deliver". If he or she delivers, they may get that vital vote to enable them to keep their job. If they don't, no matter how good they are at national policy, as Dick Spring, Alan Shatter and Nora Owen found out last time, they get the sack.
If Ireland used the simple majority vote system, then the strongest party in each constituency would win the single seat and the rest of the voters' opinions would not be represented.
There are people in my party who would favour such a system because Fianna Fáil would have a perpetual majority. However, this would be undemocratic. Someone who does not vote for a Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael candidate is entitled to the same service if that person is elected TD.
At a local level, moreover, there are many advantages to the fact that the Republic substantially exceeds the average number of national representatives per head of population. While Ireland has one member of parliament for each 20,000 people, the ratio is one to 89,000 in the UK, and one to nearly 100,000 in countries such as France, Germany and Spain.
Thus voters feel more in touch with their political representatives in this so-called "community of trust", and also have the opportunity to use the services of the party they voted for and not of the opposition.
Many people have a problem with State bureaucracy and find social welfare offices intimidating and unhelpful. Consequently, most will consult their local representative. He or she has an in-depth knowledge of what grants people are entitled to and knows the quickest and most efficient way to get things done - as in, for example, having a pothole repaired outside a council house. This expertise could be lost if the number of representatives were reduced.
It was also announced recently that all constituencies would have electronic voting by 2004. Electronic voting machines were piloted in a number of constituencies in the last general election and in the Nice referendum vote. I do not think this is a good thing.
E-voting does away with the pageantry of the count. Think about it. How many people watch the Eurovision Song Contest for the songs rather than the voting. Some people may be surprised at my view considering I lost my seat by 25 votes in 1992 and it took me a long time to recover from that night. The length of the manual election counts can be brutal for candidates and their supporters, but it has helped keep the electorate's interest alive in politics. The cross-party co-operation at the tallying has also helped to integrate parties such as the Workers' Party, once on the political fringe, and Sinn Féin into the political process.
A good election count can equal a Munster hurling final for theatrics, colour and passion.
In the US, electronic machines such as those coming to Ireland have performed poorly in the past. The California Institute of Technology, together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have conducted a 16-year study on the accuracy of the five different types of US ballot.
The electronic touch-screen computer ranked only fourth, and was found to return nearly as many uncounted, unmarked and spoiled votes as "punch cards", the infamous vote method responsible for chaos in many Florida counts during the US presidential election of 2000.
Experience has shown the paper ballot to work well in Ireland, and expert research has highlighted its accuracy abroad. Leaving paper behind in favour of an unsafe, e-voting fad does not make sense, and would only serve to undermine the democratic nature of the Irish election process.
Billy Kelleher is Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central.
Next week: Labour's Joan Burton.