David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise, as my iPad seems to be causing a problem. In some areas, the Bill's proposed changes will result in large constituencies. The Minister of State, Deputy Ring, is in a large constituency. He travels its length and breadth late at night on roads that might not be the best. It would be demanding for anyone.

A number of other constituencies will become large. For example, travelling to every village and crossroads in Kerry will be demanding, given its peninsulas. Donegal is another such constituency. West Cork is remaining more or less the same, but it is a sprawling constituency. Tipperary will become a single, large constituency. My constituency of Cork East is already quite large. Travelling from one end of it to the other is virtually a day's work.

It might be time to take stock of this situation, with our sprawling constituencies and constituents' expectations and demands, almost unique to Ireland, that Deputies be available. That said, being available to meet constituents, listen to their issues and address their problems is a good aspect.

Ireland is one of only two countries that uses PR-STV. It leads to a great deal of competition in constituencies on local matters, resulting in local matters becoming important. Our colleagues in other jurisdictions are amazed by the amount of local work that Deputies are expected to do. In my constituency, people call to my office about potholes, briars, lighting, housing and footpaths. All of my colleagues are in the same boat. Strictly speaking, those issues are under the remit of councillors. However, there is a degree of competition. If the Minister of State and I were from the same constituency and I told someone who approached me that his or her issue was a council matter, he or she would go to the Minister of State instead. If he made representations and got the job done, he would get the votes, because I did nothing to help on the grounds that it was a council issue. Members are caught.

In considering this Bill we have an opportunity to review our electoral system. I welcome the fact that this will be done via the constitutional convention, the constitutional day and so forth, but I am concerned by the time that process will take. When a report is made on this issue, we will be facing into another election and the cycle could start again. I urge that this issue be examined carefully.

I am particularly taken by the New Zealand model. New Zealand has gone through a number of electoral reforms. It has a mixed member proportional representation system. Alongside single-seat constituencies, approximately one third of Members are elected from a party list system. The result is smaller geographical constituencies, an absence of constituency rivalries between national elected politicians and a list system that preserves proportionality, in that all parties have seats in the Parliament depending on the proportion of votes they achieve. This system ticks many boxes and perhaps we should consider it. Voters would effectively have two votes. Thresholds determine the number of seats allocated to each party's list. Germany has a similar system. Maybe it is time that we started examining different systems.

I make these points in light of the expectation that we will move to 158 Deputies and to 40 constituencies that are geographically large. A constituency's size does not have much of an impact on the east coast, as the coast's population is increasing. On the west coast and in the part of the country from which I come, though, four or five Deputies are expected to travel the length and breadth of their respective sprawling constituencies.

I had a conversation with a gentleman at approximately 10 p.m. yesterday. He asked me why I was at my desk at that time. When I told him that I was working because, staying in Dublin overnight as I was, I might as well be working as watching television in a hotel, he replied that putting in such hours was bad for my health. It made me stop and ask myself about what Deputies were doing. Some of us work 18 hours per day. I was up at 6.30 a.m. today and attended my first meeting at 7.30 a.m. Many of us work this way. In some cases, we work seven days per week, as we are expected to attend functions on Saturdays and Sundays. We must stop and take stock of what we are doing. Given the system in which we work, are we providing the best possible service to our constituents?

People ask why this Chamber is often empty. The Seanad Chamber virtually saw a full attendance during the debates a couple of weeks ago. I am Chairman of the justice committee, which has launched six or seven reports in the past year. Due to scheduling and other demands, members are pulled away from important committee debates.

This Bill gives me the opportunity to put on record some ideas on how constituencies could be organised. The single-seat constituency with a mixed list system would result in smaller geographical areas and Members could remain tied to local issues to the current extent, as they would be alone in their constituencies. A recall system in respect of Deputies who decide not to work might be necessary, but the requisite threshold should be high. Other countries use such a system.

I welcome the programme for Government's promise of the establishment of an electoral commission. The Minister of State might outline the position and when the relevant legislation will be before the House. Such an electoral commission would be important, as we must begin examining turnouts and how registers are put together. A permanently established electoral commission would also deal with referenda and the attendant issues, for example, how they are run. An electoral commission could and should perform other functions. I urge the Government to ensure that the legislation be introduced and debated as soon as possible, as all of the issues that I have raised are linked to how we do our business.

Many speakers have referred to electoral registers and the mess they are in. The problems with them are well known. We must examine how the registers are compiled.

Electoral reform is being discussed in the context of major reforms at local government level, which are welcome. Local government reform is necessary as it has not been reformed for almost 100 years. The issue is being debated around the country. The abolition of town councils has been proposed. I accept that I am straying somewhat from the issue but it is related in some respects. Traditional town councils and mayors ensured the town was represented, especially towns with mayors. Across Europe and the United States there are mayors in many towns, someone who can speak for the town. In Cobh last year, the Titaniccentenary was celebrated and the mayor of the town council, Jim Quinlan, did amazing work for the year. He spoke for the town and represented it at many functions. He provided leadership. We must consider preserving that in some way in the new system. The argument has been made that many new towns have developed that do not have town councils but perhaps they should have some form of representative body. Perhaps we should expand boundaries a little more. I am concerned with how the reforms are developing. When the legislation is introduced, I would like to have a detailed examination of the proposals to see how they might work.

We have made some small changes to how we do business in the Dáil. I commend the Chief Whip on the introduction of Dáil reform and Members for agreeing to the proposals on which I have worked for some years. I would like to see more such changes in the future. There has been much talk about behaviour in the Chamber and the adversarial methodologies we use. We could examine that too.

In other countries when a Minister is appointed, if he or she is a member of parliament he or she resigns his or her seat. In effect, the parliament and executive are separate. That is the case in Sweden, France and Norway. We could examine such a system in the context of overall reform. It would allow a Minister to concentrate on his or her Ministry and not have to worry about the constituency or be obliged to attend Parliament. The Parliament would therefore be more independent of the Executive. One criticism is that the Executive controls the Parliament completely. That is still the case. We must reform our approach. One way to do that would be to remove the Executive from the Parliament and when Executive members come to Parliament they would be answerable to it and have to get legislation through it. It is something to consider in the context of a wider debate.

I am concerned about the size of many constituencies, especially in remote rural areas. Constituencies are getting bigger, which is putting considerable demands on Deputies to travel in order to represent the entire constituency. For the many reasons I have outlined, we must begin to consider a total and fundamental change. I urge that the electoral commission that was established would be introduced and also that the Constitutional Convention is asked to examine the issue sooner rather than later.

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