Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would not expect to, but I would be a good substitute. I am sure the Minister will tell them how much I did for him when I was Minister and that he will reciprocate at this time.

Mayo people are passionate about their county. For a county that has not enjoyed great success on the football pitch for many years, its people still dream anew every year that Mayo will bring Sam back to the county. In that regard, it is a great disappointment to them that the name of Mayo is not incorporated in the new Galway West constituency. They are very disappointed that the new constituency is not called Galway West-South Mayo. As it does not change the decisions of the commission in any way, since it is only a matter of naming constituencies, I will table an amendment in this regard on Committee Stage. I hope the Taoiseach, a proud Mayo man, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, also a proud Mayo man, Deputy Michelle Mulherin, a proud Mayo woman, and Deputy O'Mahony, who despite having trained Galway to All-Ireland Championship success and living in County Roscommon played his football with Mayo and represents that county in the Dáil, will fully understand the sensitivities in ensuring that Mayo is part of the name of this constituency. It is important that people identify with their constituencies, particularly in rural areas where names mean a great deal. I hope such an amendment will secure all-party agreement. I am sure the four Mayo Deputies will support such an amendment and if we get the Taoiseach's and Minister of State's support, it will be passed by the House. I will be seeking their support. I hope this will be seen to be above politics and the right thing to do for County Mayo. I will table the amendment and hope for the support of the Government Deputies.

I will take this opportunity to discuss the political system. I do not go along with the idea that Deputies are under-worked, our constituencies are too small or that the number of Deputies should continue to be reduced. Sometimes people make fallacious comparisons. There are over 600 Members of the House of Commons representing approximately 60 million people in Britain. People say this indicates one representative for every 100,000 people. Therefore, MPs in Britain are representing many more people proportionately to us. They forget, of course, that we have a proportional representation, PR, system. Under that system Deputies in a five seat constituency are each representing all the approximately 110,000 people in that constituency. Since I became a Member of this House that figure has increased from approximately 20,000 per Deputy, which means 100,000 in a five seat constituency, to nearly 30,000, which means almost 150,000 in the constituency. Deputies, therefore, are now representing many more people. When one takes the PR element into account one finds that, comparatively, we represent the same number of people as other representatives in other jurisdictions.

The Dublin constituencies are very small geographically. The effect of this is that there are absolutely enormous western constituencies. If Mayo had remained a five seat constituency, which was possible, it would have had to acquire a major slice of either Counties Sligo, Roscommon or Galway. In the existing constituency, it takes two hours of hard driving to drive from Moyne Bridge outside Headford, County Galway, on the Mayo border across to Blacksod in County Mayo. I am sure Deputy Ring could tell many horror stories about trying to stay awake when driving, trying to put in the hours and trying to be in two places on the same day across an enormous territory.

People often criticise what they call clientelist politics. I believe the stability of our democracy is based on the fact that people know their public representatives and that the representative is not a distant person they do not know and just a name on a ballot paper. In most cases, particularly outside urban areas, the vast majority of people have met and know their Deputy. People have wondered why the Irish people just got on with facing the difficulties in the economy and did not get destructive about it. I believe that is due to the closeness of the political system to the people. Consider the history of this country before 1922. There was a cycle of violence and disconnection with those who ruled us. As a result, people thought the Irish were an innately violent people. However, when we secured our own Government and structures and public representation that is close to the people we became a people who bought into our democracy. The stability of our democracy in the 20th century is unparalleled. I believe that relates to two things - ownership of houses, which appears to be becoming an unpopular concept, and the closeness of the political system to the people. We should be slow, therefore, to move away from that connection.

I wish well all those who seek big constitutional change. However, they must never forget in the course of that debate that the people have twice in the past shown themselves to be slow to make changes in the system they like. Under our written Constitution, the people are the final arbiters. Politicians can propose but only the people, voting in a referendum, can dispose of any change. All those people with the big ideas should remember that they must take account of what the people in this country quite correctly want.

With regard to our work, it is time, on all sides of the House, that we stopped running down the job of Teachta Dála and that we explained to the public that if backbench Members carried out their constituency role and their legislative and representative roles in the House correctly, played a full part in committees, do everything else expected of public representatives such as attending public events and so on and took an interest in other issues outside their own narrow brief, their role would be important but it would take more than all the hours available in a day. The notion that people want better services with less resources in the context of staff and other supports to provide them is counterproductive and is not rational and, therefore, we must educate the public about all the roles we play. For example, the Minister of State has a great deal of experience of opposition and he will be well aware of the volume of work dealing with legislation, including doing the detailed homework needed to table effective amendments.

At the beginning of every session of this Dáil, statements are scheduled to fill the time and this has not changed under the new Government. I acknowledge there are forces outside the control of the Government, based on years of habit within the public service system, which result in most legislation being brought into the House during the final three weeks of each session. We must together develop a system that spreads legislation out more evenly and does away with the guillotine. Many times, difficulties have arisen with legislation that was passed in a hurry and not teased out properly in the House. We all have a role to play in this regard. As Opposition Members, we can make a big contribution at select committee meetings by going through every line of legislation while Government backbenchers could do more to tease out legislation as well. It is also important that co-operation is given by Ministers such as that I have received from my opposite number, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine while discussing the Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012. He has been accommodating in allowing his officials to meet us on a continual basis to brief us and so on and he has accepted many amendments. Where he did not accept them, he brought forward his own, which reflected with the basic thesis behind ours. That is the way legislation should be processed and we should make it our earnest commitment that we will not, except in extreme emergencies, guillotine legislation and we will work through Committee and Report Stages. If a guillotine has to be used, it should apply to Second Stage and not on the stages that decide the wording of the law and the effect it will have on people to avoid unintended consequences.

Le críoch, cuirfidh mé síos leasú ag Céim an Choiste agus beidh mé ag brath ar an Aire Stáit le tacaíocht a thabhairt dó.

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