Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Two and a half years ago, we were told a democratic revolution had taken place. A political whirlwind was to sweep through the corridors of Government Buildings and usher in a brave new political world. The citizens of Ireland were clear that the economic crisis demanded a fresh approach to the institutions of the State and a fundamental overhaul of how we do our business. Fine Gael and the Labour Party set out bold promises to enact that change. It was the dawn of a new political era.

Two and a half years later and those heady days seem a distant memory. At the stroke of a Minister's pen, the new Cabinet's reforming zeal has cooled off and hardened into complacency and cynicism. The bright promise turned out to be a dark cynical ploy, a mirage created by charlatan politics. Instead of change, we have found stagnation, instead of renewal, we have suffered decline, and instead of reform, we have endured sheer cynicism. The need to address inadequacies in the architecture of the State was a central part of the national discussion in the aftermath of the economic crisis. The election manifestoes of the parties now in government and the subsequent programme for Government made it a central part of the goals of the present Administration. However, from the outset it was all too clear these pledges were built on sand. Behind the window dressing, the Government consistently has scuppered any real opportunity for reform.

The much-vaunted Constitutional Convention is a case in point. The original idea evoked images of Philadelphia in 1787, a gathering of citizens committed to focusing, in their collective mind's eye, the challenges of redesigning the ship of State. The concept of a body that would deliberate on the challenging questions of how to recast the framework of the State and put forward solutions is a striking idea. However, far from that seminal meeting, the Government's Constitutional Convention was irredeemably flawed from the very outset. From the beginning, the Government has muzzled the convention. It took the conscious decision to constrain the convention within a severely restricted set of topics, while the Government continues to concentrate power into the hands of a four man council at the top of the largest majority ever seen in the State. The big issues will be denied to the convention only to be driven on by a small clique.

Seanad abolition takes an axe to more than 40 articles of the Constitution, thereby removing the checks and balances that safeguard our democracy in a brutal measure that will mutilate the guiding book of the State. Yet this topic has not been deliberated upon by the very convention the Government set up to revise the Constitution and make it fit for purpose in a changed Ireland. Instead, the Government has engaged in a cynical game of political gimmickry masquerading as reform. For the sake of short-term political gain, it is jeopardising the fundamental law of the land, the basic architecture of the State that has sustained the country for more than 75 years through war, armed sedition and economic crisis. The Government's enthusiasm for slash and burn politics stretches into the corridors of local government with the policy to abolish town hall democracy. As Edmund Burke put it, "To innovate is not to reform". Change is not an improvement in itself and eliminating swathes of the structure of government in Ireland will not improve it unless real reforms are implemented across other levels. However, the Government is only interested in quick and easy headlines, not the time-consuming and politically demanding challenge of getting local government to work for the citizens. The emasculated state of local government in Ireland and the immense impact this has on our political culture nationally has been utterly ignored. The myopic nature of the political reform agenda fails to appreciate the inextricably bound nature of local and national politics. Genuine political reform must stretch from the community hall to the corridors of the Cabinet, but the convention is not allowed to deal with this.

Away from the high level political stunts, a darker agenda is at play from the present Administration, at which the convention is not being empowered to look. I refer to the concentration of power into the hands of a few, that is, the amassing of power by a small clique of men -I underline that for all the talk of gender equality they are solely men - calling the shots in an unbalanced Cabinet. The four man Economic Management Council runs the show while the backbenchers ossify into idle irrelevance as lobby fodder. The convention has not been put in a position to pose questions on the critical relationship of the Executive and the Legislature, which continues to dominate Irish politics. Until this relationship is addressed, any changes are merely tinkering around the edges and this is the ultimate aim of a Government that is content with the status quo.

If one looks at the actions of the Government in this House, the bleak agenda of a power grab hiding behind the charade of reform becomes clear. The record shows a dark litany of hypocrisy. First, the Government is systematically breaking its pledge in the programme for Government not to guillotine Bills, as 63% of all legislation has been guillotined to date. Second, it has failed in respect of 78% of Bills to implement its programme for Government commitment to allow for two weeks between stages of Bills. Third, the Topical Issues debate is being completely undermined by the failure of relevant Ministers to turn up in more than 40% of cases. The Friday sitting farce constitutes mere window dressing to bolster sitting days without any real debate. Moreover, sitting days have expanded by 23% and not the 50% increase promised. Finally, the Government continues to engage in cronyism in State board appointments, thereby ignoring the open public process, with a mere one in five appointees actually coming from that process.

This chronicle of political avarice illustrates the lust for power hidden by a thin veil of change that really drives the Government, and the Constitutional Convention has been hamstrung by this underlying motivation. The most disappointing aspect of the approach ruthlessly taken by the Government is not merely the growing pile of broken promises on which its position is built but the sharp sense of a missed opportunity. It is rare in history that one gets the opportunity and the political capital to tackle head-on the challenges of reshaping the State. The Free State had it in 1922, de Valera had it in 1937 and the present Administration had it again in 2011. However, history will record that it wasted its opportunity to match those accomplishments. It will show up the chronic short-term cynicism and cynical spin that has characterised the present Government. Under the harsh light of time, the spin and cheap headlines will give way to the hard realities of a Government that mutilated the Constitution. History will expose a Government that traded its political legacy to the future generations that will share this island for a few points in opinion polls. Ultimately, it is the citizens of Ireland, present and future, who will pay for this Faustian pact. The democratic revolution of two and a half years ago is but a distant memory and a cruel, unfulfilled promise.

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