Representing or representative?

// January 26th, 2007 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

The Tony Killeen saga drags on. According to our friends in the fourth estate he is coming under increasing pressure to resign. From where? Bertie? Killeen’s defence appears modelled on the Bart Simpson mantra of ‘I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, you can’t prove anything.’

It is quite unlikely that he will stand aside at this point though the view taken by the Irish Sundays will tell all in the end. I suspect in the various publications at the weekend there will be an effort to move the issue on from specific to the general.

The unfortunate people in all this are the family and friends of Robert Lynch. For them it is much more than a conversation piece about the specifics of a letter from a junior minister and it is entirely about the personal loss they have suffered. Perhaps, if Killeen or his ‘people’ had made some effort to check the facts they might have been spared all the raking over their loss.

The odd thing is that many people in the meeja are choosing to talk about how this is all bundled up with the work of TDs in asking questions and making representations to organs of the state. Does it strike no one as wrong that in republic that a civil servant should answer a question from one citizen when in the guise of a TD while stonewalling other citizens?

I’ve had half post in my mind for the last 6 months about the difference between TDs and other public reps representing us instead of being representative of us. The Irish electorate has always exhibited a preference for TDs who they feel are one of them or like themselves. This is all well and good but kind of defeats the point of a democracy. You see the point is to elect people who will represent you to the best of their ability on the issues of day, not to be representative of the kind of person you actually are. Certainly, the TD should represent your views on matters political but we tend not to worry so much about that at election time rather it is often of more concern that the TD look and sound like you.

In essence my view is that TDs are meant to be professionals at their job of working for us. I might think it a good thing that I get on with the plumber when he calls to fix a problem with the boiler but I really do not want him to be like me when it comes to fixing the plumbing or we’ll all be drowned inside of 15 minutes. I believe he should be better at doing his job than I would at it. That is why I pay him to do it and don’t do it myself.

Sadly, we’ve done the complete opposite when it comes to public reps and elected captains of football teams and the popular lad from school or the friendly auctioneer, or the lassie who hold a tune. Sure, we’ve lucked in sometimes in that a number of them have proved up to the job they’ve ended up with, the depressing fact is that for the most part we ended up with TDs who do no better than if they had been randomly selected as our representatives much like happens for jury duty. And they get the run around from civil servants who are selected for their ability to do their jobs.

Is it any wonder we have Martin Cullen as minister for transport?

Tony Killeen – vote for my staff, they do it all

// January 23rd, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

This story doesn’t seem to going away, but it also doesn’t seem likely to cost Killeen his job.

My personal view is that as a TD he ran for election largely based on what he does for his constituents, then we find out he does not actually do these things for his constituents it is in fact his staff that do them (who are in part or wholy funded by the taxpayer who provide money for a constituency office). This being the case why then do we not get to vote for his staff if they are doing the work rather than him?

Irish blogs awards

// January 13th, 2007 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

The nominations for the Irish blogs awards are now open and this is the post where one would normally expect to hear the poster asking/begging/pleading for people to nominate their blog for consideration. You can do it here.

However, I would have to say that compared to some of the more established politically orientated Irish blogs out there I don’t reckon I would rate very highly given my inconsistent and infrequent rate of posting. My own fault.

Still if anyone feels they must, feel free. Just don’t be disappointed íf my name doesn’t end up appearing in lights. I won’t be. And the best of luck to those who are nominated.

You pay taxes so we don’t have to

// January 12th, 2007 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

For all my talk about new technology and its potential impact on the next Irish general election you’d think I would make more of an effort to use it. Well here is a start

It is something I knocked together in about half an hour. I admit it is somewhat harsh but not nearly as harsh as it could be.

Seanad Reform

// January 2nd, 2007 // No Comments » // Seanad, seanad eireann, seanad reform

We’ve had quite a few reports in total on Seanad reform down the years since the Seanad was created by DeVelera as part of his 1937 Constitution. The most recent document looking at the issue is the Seanad Reform report published in 2004.

In fact as the report notes there are have been 11 previous reports on Seanad reform prior to this. That would tend to make any future proposal the unlucky 13th. It might be an idea to spare this next report a few problems by addressing what we can.

Naturally as UL graduate, I want the government to legislate to provide for the 7th amendment to the constitution and to extend voting rights to those graduates outside of TCD and the NUI. As a nation we haven’t tend to go to the bother of amending the constitution willy nilly and when the proposal is passed by a margin of 9:1 you would expect that the state would have gotten around to acting sooner than now. As part of this we need to act to fix the registers for the third level seats and here’s my suggestion how to do it.

Beyond that regarding the broader reform of the Seanad which are arguably more important but which will take more time and requires constitutional change. I believe that we should value and respect the intent of the original Seanad which is that it would represent sectoral interests and recognise that the role of the Seanad should not be to become the source of an alternative government.

It is very feasible to have 60 seats elected by all the population, choosing on the day of the election which panel they would wish to vote for and in turn which candidates on those panels. The actual panels on offer could be decided at the time of the census, with the number of seats for each panel being allocated in proportion to the number of votes cast on election day. The Seanad could be fixed term or elected on the same day as the Dail I see merits in both ideas.

There may be merit in the idea that we have provincial Seanad panels for the four provinces. The reformed third level seats in this scenario would form part of the educational panel. People would only be able to vote for one panel.

Such a system would also allow for Irish emigrants panel with a minimal seat of one senator open to those who have registered with their Irish embassy.

Regarding votes in the Dail for those overseas, I believe that we should look at some form of observed proxy voting from the embassies. In other types of elections the votes of those overseas can be merely added to the total once the elections is completed. In our form of PR, it would be necessary to have the completed ballot papers be present at the count centre at the time of the opening of the boxes.