Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

I ask the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to advise me when I have spoken for seven minutes. My colleagues opposite are seeking additional time because the Order of Business ran late. When dealing with electoral and political reform, actions speak louder than words, and I am happy to share time with my colleagues.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill because every Member of this House dealt with questions on the need for reform while canvassing for the last election. While I do not question the Government's sincerity in proposing reform, I have reservations about the piecemeal manner in which it is pursuing its aims. The Minister is required by law to establish a constituency commission to review Dáil and European Parliament constituencies upon publication of the preliminary census report but there is no reason why we cannot go a step further. I will concentrate my remarks on the review of the constituency commission.

I support the reduction in the spending limit for presidential elections, although it perhaps could be reduced further. My experience of running a Dáil election campaign on a shoestring and being elected at a bad time for the party of which I am a member suggests that national elections could cost significantly less than what is being proposed in this Bill. I welcome that by-elections will be held within a specified period. I do not have an issue with a time limit of six months but perhaps the time could be extended by a few months in light of comments made by previous speakers.

The Government proposes to introduce radical political changes but reducing the number of Deputies by six or 12 will not achieve that goal. We need to examine the political system in its entirety, including the Dáil, Seanad and local authorities. We should bring forward a package of reforms on the same day. In April, the Taoiseach stated he would introduce a Constitution day within the following 12 months with a view to amending the Constitution. Fine Gael's election manifesto indicated it would reduce the Dáil by 20 seats but perhaps we could reduce this number still further by devolving powers to local authorities. These are areas that we need to consider collectively. There is merit in establishing a cross-party group to investigate political reform. Some of the newer Members of the House should sit on this group because, with all due respect to long-serving Members, it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks. Members who have fought several campaigns over a 20 to 30 year period become comfortable with the status quo because they know they can be elected and they sometimes appear afraid to embrace new practices. Previous speakers appeared nervous about bringing in outside expertise. However, I commend the Taoiseach on his lack of fear in appointing his 11 nominees to the Seanad. If, as some have claimed, we might have ended up with Seanie Fitzpatrick as Minister for Finance, we might also have appointed Matthew Elderfield. We cannot be afraid to embrace change and we need to reform radically the way our political system operates. We are national legislators but some of us spend too much time on local issues. While voters expect us to do a certain amount of local constituency work, they also expect us to deal with national issues.

The reason I want a cross-party group to review our political system is because I do not believe we can trust one party to operate on a consensus basis. The largest party in Government is at present blatantly blocking prospective candidates from entering the presidential election because it is in the fortunate position of controlling a large number of county councils and can use a whip to ensure credible candidates do not enter the field. If a credible candidate wants to undergo the process of nomination by local authorities, councillors should be given the opportunity to make a decision based on the individual's merits. Fine Gael has also broken its promises to reduce the number of junior Ministers to 12 and on reducing the number of Dáil seats. These issues should be considered on a cross-party basis.

The Minister was correct in stating that the failures of the political system over the past decade were key contributors to the financial crisis. This is why we need to examine the way we elect Deputies. The system provides for auction politics and empty promises. I remind Members of the broken promises on political reform, Roscommon hospital and ensuring the money follows the patient. These promises were made with the sole intention of electoral gain.

We need to rethink the way we do our business by considering the devolution of powers to local government or introducing single seat constituencies and partial list systems. I will not set out what is right or wrong but I ask why we must rush into these matters. Does the Government want to implement everything because it does not expect to last five years? In respect of other measures contained in the programme for Government, we are told there are five years for implementing them but the approach to political reform is to rush through a measure to reduce the number of Deputies by six. I do not agree this represents political reform and I propose that an all-party committee be established to consider reforms at Dáil, Seanad, European Parliament and local government levels.

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