Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Deputy Deering. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important matter. It was interesting to hear the contributions of some of the previous speakers on this matter.

Obviously, the constituency boundary review is necessary because of changes and movements in population, and I acknowledge the work that has been done in putting the review in place. Certainly, a review is not easy to do. There are so many permutations and possibilities that it is difficult to settle on one final outcome and I acknowledge the work that went into it. It is far from perfect. Members described how they see many failings in it but one will never satisfy everyone.

While I welcome the reduction in numbers from 166 to 158, this is far short of the reform that we really need in this country. My view is that being in a situation that has the IMF here in the country, and in which we are borrowing from the ECB and the EU to run the country on a day-to-day basis, means our political system has failed. It is quite simple - the political system in the State has failed. If it had not, we would not have the IMF here lending money to the country and helping us to run our affairs. That political failure is something we need to address because, quite simply, the system we have at present has not worked. We need to put in place proper reform. The reform must start here and it must trickle the whole way down to local government.

The electoral system in this country, the PR-STV system with multi-seat constituencies, is one area that we need to look at. Recently, I introduced a Bill here, the Thirty-Second Amendment of the Constitution (Dáil Éireann) Bill 2012, which proposes that we would set the number of TDs in Dáil Éireann at 101, including the chairman, to be elected from 100 single-seat constituencies throughout the country. We would maintain the transferable-vote system. As such, it would be an alternative vote, AV, system electing one per constituency. That is one of the fundamental shifts we need in terms of having a properly functioning Parliament where the Members can focus more on legislation, national issues and policy areas.

What we have at present is a system which at its heart has competition. Whereas competition is very healthy in most cases, our multi-seat constituency competition flies in the face of taking a more pro-active parliamentary approach to our work, and we really need to look at that. It was mentioned here earlier by Deputy Lawlor that, even though we are parliamentarians and legislators, if someone comes to us to have a pothole filled or a drain cleared, one cannot say no. One cannot even delegate because it might give the impression that one does not want to get one's hands dirty with that sort of work. That is the danger a public representative fears. That is a big problem. If one does not do it, they merely go to the next TD who will do it. That is a problem and it is not right. In a single-seat scenario, however, constituents would go to the appropriate person to do the job, who, in that particular example, would be the local county councillor or even the local authority staff. That system would work so much better because it would free-up time for the national parliamentarians to look at the issues of the day, to look at policy areas and to devise policy on creating jobs and what the country needs, allowing local county councillors to do what is more appropriate to their job. That is something we really need to look at.

In my case, in Kerry, the review will bring about reunification of the county. Previously, for many decades, there was a north-south split. We also had a ludicrous situation where a little bit of west Limerick was thrown in with north Kerry. Many in that part of Limerick were not happy with that arrangement and now they have gone back in with Limerick county. There are positives with Kerry being a single constituency in that for years politics in Kerry was too local. Fellows were looking after their own patch and not looking at the greater good of the county. A positive from this will be that the larger area, the county as a whole, will be focused on.

One of the difficulties will be that Kerry is a very large county. Geographically, it has three peninsulas, mountains and vast areas of difficult terrain for us to drive through and get about in. If, for example, one must attend a meeting in Tarbert which is right up in the north of the county and after that one needs to go down to Ballinskelligs which is down in the very south-western part of the county, one could be travelling for two and a half hours. One could reach on the outskirts of Dublin as quickly as one would get down to Ballinskelligs. Personally, I am quite fortunate in that Castlemain, my home base, is located in a central part of the county. If I go west I am on the Dingle Peninsula and if I go south, I am on the Iveragh Peninsula. I am not too far from anywhere. For other Deputies, however, it could present a major difficulty in terms of travel times and the logistics of getting around. No doubt that is a major issue. In my proposal, there would be 100 constituencies and no constituency would be too big geographically. It would be a step in the right direction that there would not be Deputies spending three or four hours driving around in their constituency, merely getting from A to B and home again.

We need to get serious about reform. As I stated, the system clearly has not worked. Let us not deny that. We are only fooling ourselves if we think it has. No country that must bring in the IMF has a properly functioning parliament. The political system here has failed and we need to fix it, and we need to get serious about fixing it. Reducing the numbers from 166 to 158 without putting in proper structural reforms will not fix the problem.

Those are my proposals. I am sure every other Member in this House has ideas on reform and what would work, but we need to get serious about having a debate on this. We are not really debating political reform here in the Dáil Chamber. It is all well and good for issues to be discussed at the Constitutional Convention, but this is the Dáil. This is the Chamber to which Members from all over the country are elected to represent their people and this is where we should be discussing this, and it has not happened. It is disheartening and disillusioning that two years in we still have not discussed that fundamental issue.

I hope there will be an opportunity to discuss my Bill on a Friday. In that regard, I would like to see a continuation of the situation that pertained last week where two Bills were taken on such a day. There is room for that to be done. At least, it would give back bench and Opposition Deputies a greater chance to have their Bills considered. I cannot see why we would not do that, and vote on them on the day as well. That way there would be a little more participation and debate on the Bill.

See this speech in context