How to make Irish Politics work.

Jane Suiter over on www.politicalreform.ie makes this very vaild point about what we need to change in our political system to make it work better. Given that there is a consensus of sorts being arrived at that our political system has failed us, we need now to consider what sort of changes would make our political system more responsive to modern needs? I can think of four that would radically change how politics would work in Ireland:

1. A National Constituency. One of the greatest obstacles to rational national policy making is the geographical obsession in Irish politics. This is understandable, as we are a people with strong local community ties. The problem is that it is now a hindrance in that no candidate sees any votes in pursuing national issues. If we had, say, 90 TDs elected in constituencies, and 30 elected in a single national constituency, we would at least allow for some candidates to get elected on a non-geographical basis. You would still have the Candidate For The West, etc, but some of the national TDs would be issue or vocational based. The argument in favour of single-seat constituencies has a lot going for it too, when coupled with an open list PR system. Continue reading