Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

He goes on to state:

Parliamentary Democracy gives [people] the right to a voice in the selection of [their] rulers but insists that [they] shall bend as a subject to be ruled.

In arguing for the alternative he states:

[We need a democracy that] will change the choice of rulers which we have to-day into the choice of administrators of laws voted upon directly by the people; and...substitute for the choice of masters...the appointment of reliable public servants under direct public control. That will [be] true democracy.

That is actually what people want. The language is a bit archaic but they want direct control. They want a direct say in the laws. They do not want to see people get elected on the basis of certain promises and then implement other policies and laws which people did not vote for and in which they have no say. They want to have a say in the issues that directly affect them. Connolly was so right, and that challenge remains. If we do not meet that challenge by giving people the real democracy and accountability they want and of which they can have real ownership, we face a dangerous situation. One only has to look at the growth of the far right in Europe to see the chilling reminders of what happened in the 1930s, when faith in the democratic system broke down completely. The greatest horrors in human history were unleashed on our society across Europe and the world. It is frightening to see the rise of Golden Dawn and other neo-facist organisations across Europe. As Yeats put it at the turn of the century:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

He was describing the situation in the 1916 to 1919 period including the First World War, the economic collapse, the crisis and the political polarisation that took place. It happened again in the 1930s and in the face of anther economic crisis, we are seeing the worrying signs of that developing again.

Where does that assessment of the crisis of democracy that I believe exists, and I think most people believe exists, lead us in terms of trying to deal not just with the issue of the Seanad but the way we could have democratic institutions that command respect, where there is a vibrant democracy that functions as opposed to the dysfunctional one we have now? We first have to have a democracy in which there is recallability and accountability for decisions made. People are screaming for that. In the Meath by-election the group that shocked and surprised many people in the vote it got was Direct Democracy. It was precisely on the basis of arguing for that kind of direct participatory democracy that it surprised everybody and got a huge vote. We must have a democracy which has that level of accountability rather than simply electing people for five years during which time they can do whatever they want.

We also have to have a democracy that is genuinely representative of all sectors of society. There have been ups and downs in regard to that but in general terms there is a decline in the numbers voting in elections compared to a few decades ago. Generally speaking there is a decline in the western world in the number of people voting, and that decline tends to be concentrated among young people, the less well off and the disadvantaged sectors of society but there is a definite decline in enthusiasm for, involvement in and engagement with democracy. That tells us that we must have a democracy that is genuinely representative of all sectors of society.

We have to have a democracy that is not just a political democracy but one in which people have real control over the economic forces that govern and dictate their lives. There is a fundamental deficit in democracy if a small minority of people have control of the vast majority of wealth and resources in a society because they can use that wealth and resources to undermine democracy. That is where corruption has come from; it is not something that is unique to Ireland. We have had corruption scandals where big money has bought off, corrupted and corroded the democratic system in almost every major western country, not to mind the global south. It is always the same pattern. People with a great deal of money use that money, power and influence to corrode, undermine and corrupt the democratic system.

It follows logically from that that if we have a more democratic system and a more democratic society, the more equally we distribute the wealth and the control of the resources in society. If wealth and resources are privately owned, regardless of the democratic structures we have, the people who control that wealth and resources use them de facto to control what goes on in society. The heavy concentration of control of the media in this country by two of the wealthiest individuals in the country is symptomatic of that fact. That is just one example. We have to address that inequality.

It is obvious that the privatisation of State assets and natural resources, which are key to the functioning of our society, is also antithetical to democracy because if we hand over those resources, assets and infrastructure, which are vital to the functioning of society, and remove them from any kind of democratic control or accountability, it hollows out democracy itself. It makes democracy a meaningless side show to the day to day reality where those who control those resources, assets and infrastructures decide who does or does not access them. We are seeing that is the case even in areas like health and roads. One has to pay to travel on roads now. One has to pay to access decent health services. One can get a higher class of education if one can pay extra for it. These things are corrosive and they undermine democracy. Those are the issues we have to address and if we do not address them, we will be in trouble.

I want to speak about protest in this regard. Some people, particularly professional politicians, are contemptuous of popular campaigns of protest. They like to present them as mindless activities that people engage in, that people like serial protesting, and that there is no reason for it.

This was evident yesterday when I said the decision on the selling off of Coillte was a victory for people power and there were hoots of derision from Government and some Opposition TDs. They were laughing at and deriding the idea that ordinary citizens might have had an influence on the Government decision on the sale of the harvesting rights of Coillte when they should celebrate the fact the public engaged so much with that issue. They should celebrate the fact that such a wide and diverse coalition of our society engaged with an issue that was critical to our society and if that meant they changed the Government's mind on something, that is good. It is an indication of democracy working at some level and the Government and our political system should not be afraid of that or seek to insulate itself from it but should seek to embrace it and learn from it how to develop a thriving, dynamic, functioning democracy.

Where does that leave us in terms of the Seanad? Abolish it, but the Dáil is dysfunctional as well. We must establish new institutions, starting at local level, that are genuine popular assemblies that represent all sectors of society, ensuring worker representation, small business representation-----

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