Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

There has been a lot of comment within the House and in the media, and in the country generally, about the need to reform the workings of the Dáil and the political system in general. These include knee-jerk reactions such as the proposals to abolish the Seanad, change the single transferable vote system and decrease the size of the Dáil to 100 or fewer Members. None of these solutions will provide a political system that will work any better for the people of Ireland. What we need is full reform of our system at local, regional and national level.

Many commentators speak about the need to reduce the number of Deputies in our system, but the level of representation at national level is not out of line with those of our European partners. There is one representative for every 26,000 people in Finland, one for every 26,000 in Sweden and one for every 29,000 in Norway; in Ireland, we have one for every 27,000 citizens. The debate should be about how our system works, or does not work, as the case may be, and not about how many representatives we have. The debate about numbers just masks the need for a real debate about reform of the system.

This motion concentrates on reform of the work of the Dáil as the start of a debate about the reform that is needed in the entire system. We need real reform of the House and not just the minor rearrangements that have been proposed so far by the Government. The Whip system must be abolished. The Constitution does not recognise the party system that operates in the House. Every Member has an equal mandate and is elected to represent the people, not the party. Every Member should be free to vote with his or her conscience. Committees must be strengthened. Proposed legislation should be brought before a committee in the first instance, debated, and then drafted to reflect the views of the committee. Committees should have the power to compel witnesses and hold inquiries. All debates, no matter what the issue, should have a question-and-answer session with the relevant Minister, which can inform the subsequent debate. Ministers should be compelled to give complete and concise answers; this should be evaluated by the Committee on Procedure and Privileges.

These changes cannot be made in isolation. The entire representational system must be reformed. One of the most striking differences in our system compared to the rest of Europe is the level and development of local government that exists in other jurisdictions. We should not reduce the size of our national legislature, if at all, without reform of local government. A local government system that has real revenue-raising powers and control of its own capital budgets is urgently required. Many Members of the House and commentators complain about the number of local issues that Deputies deal with, but the crux of the problem is that so much local decision making is done nationally. We should abolish the management system in local government and make councils truly responsible for local decision making. We should develop a regional government system that can provide oversight and ensure compliance with planning, budgetary and financial guidelines. The Houses of the Oireachtas can then concentrate on the legislation and oversight that is badly needed.

I would like to comment on the proposed abolition of the Seanad, another knee-jerk reaction. The way the Seanad is elected must change. We should do away with the crazy system of Senators being elected by local councillors and certain university graduates and appointed by the Taoiseach. We could elect the Seanad using a list system on the day of the European elections, with seats allocated from the list based on the European constituencies and proportionally to the strength of each constituency's European representation. All parties and Independents can be represented on the list. Then we must ensure the Seanad has real work to do and real legislative input, because we need an Upper House that can hold the Dáil to account.

This motion is the Technical Group's contribution to the start of a debate on real political reform, which must be ongoing and far-reaching to make sure we rebuild confidence in our system.

See this speech in context