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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter and to thank the people who were involved in the convention. Many people gave up their time and put a great deal of effort into being involved. That is very much appreciated and should be acknowledged.

I will focus on a narrow part of this report and what I consider to be a fundamental part of our democratic system, the electoral system for electing Members of the Dáil. There is much talk about Dáil reform and reforming how Deputies do their business, but we must also consider reforming how Deputies are elected to the House in the first place. One of the flaws in our system is the multi-seat constituency system. The PR-STV system has served us well over the decades. It certainly offers the opportunity for smaller groups and minorities in society to be represented in the House, but the multi-seat system has led to many difficulties and a lack of full potential being achieved in the House.

I will outline some of the flaws in the system. The first is the clientelism that arises. As long as there are multi-seat constituencies, too many Deputies will spend too much time on the wrong issues instead of focusing on the parliamentary and legislative issues they are elected to deal with. For example, if a constituent approaches a Deputy with a problem that is really more relevant to a citizens' information office, a member of the local authority or an agency of the State, the Deputy cannot tell the person that it is a matter for somebody else because the constituent will approach another Deputy in the constituency and one can be sure of two things as a result, that the other Deputy will do the job and the first Deputy will never get a vote again from the constituent. As long as that is the scenario, Deputies will spend far too much time on matters that should be dealt with by other people. That is a terrible shame.

Ultimately, very few people have the opportunity to be a Member of this House and to contribute to the formation of policy and making law. Unfortunately, when we become Members too many of us are inundated with paperwork and matters that are not fundamentally part of the job. The only way we can change that is by jumping together and putting in place a system that safeguards the Deputy and allows them to delegate that work. Do not misinterpret me, I work extremely hard in my constituency on a one-to-one basis with people. However, I know from speaking to colleagues that many of us would prefer to have more time to focus on scrutinising legislation, forming policy on matters such as creating jobs for our constituents and trying to resolve some of the larger problems in the country. That is one of the flaws in the system.

Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan referred to internal party competition and the amount of time Deputies spend looking over their shoulders at somebody else in their party, perhaps the hungry councillor coming behind who is dealing with local issues on the ground. That Deputy, therefore, must also focus on local issues when they should be dealing with bigger, national issues in this House. We learned this painful lesson in the last number of years. We have seen how Dáil Éireann took its eye off the ball and allowed some problems to escalate and spiral out of control which ultimately led to the country's collapse in recent years. A stronger Dáil must have Deputies who are able to spend more time on Dáil issues. We must focus on that.

The argument for a single seat constituency system is strengthened when one considers that, at present, Deputies are not necessarily elected for their legislative or parliamentary work. In some cases they are elected for the wrong reasons. In a single seat constituency system, where one Deputy is returned from a constituency, the people would focus on the Deputy who is doing the legislative and parliamentary work. That is a serious issue and it must be considered and debated. To that end, I introduced a Bill dealing with this matter in November 2012 and another Bill recently. In my Bill I propose that a referendum be held and that we move from the current number of three, four and five seat constituencies to a scenario where there would be 157 single seat constituencies. It would retain the PR-STV system, although it would be the alternative vote, AV, system in that case. The Constitution refers to the use of the PR-STV system in the presidential election, which is perhaps a slight mistake.

In the Bill I introduced in 2012, I proposed that the number of Deputies be reduced to 101, with one being the outgoing Ceann Comhairle. Unfortunately, the focus of the debate at the time was on the 57 Deputies who would lose their jobs. However, the intention was to change from multi-seat constituencies to single seat constituencies while retaining the transferable vote system. That is the reason the latest Bill, which is currently with the Bills Office, retains the current number of Deputies for the next election. I strongly believe it is part of the reform that is required. There are two elements of reform required in this country - electoral reform and Dáil reform. Electoral reform and how Deputies are elected to this House is crucial. It is something we must debate further and I hope there will be a Second Stage debate on that Bill.

I realise there are differing views on list systems and other systems, but the country would progress if we were able to give Deputies a better opportunity to focus on what really matters, such as creating jobs for our people and ensuring our country never slides back into the mess it has been in for the last couple of years.

Unfortunately, in this State we have a cycle whereby every 30 years we seem to crash into the worst possible economic disaster, recover and then crash again. This cycle will continue until we have more fundamental reform of how we manage matters. In the Oireachtas we are the managers of the country and when something goes wrong, the buck has to stop here. The system is flawed.

County Kerry will become a single five seat constituency after the next general election when I hope I will have the privilege of representing the whole county. We are a very proud people and like to wear the green and gold whenever we can. To do so here would be a great honour for the whole county. However, if I drive home from Dublin on a Thursday evening, it might take four and a half hours, if I am lucky. If I have to attend a meeting in Listowel and then Ballinskelligs, it will take a further two and a half hours. If I then have to attend an event in Dingle, I could be driving around my constituency for five or six hours because it is so large. In a single seat scenario a county such as Kerry would be split into five constituencies, solving the logistical problem of trying to get around the constituency. The same applies to other large counties with relatively small populations such as Galway, Mayo and Donegal. We need to consider the issue. Although there is an argument that it would suit larger parties, I do not agree. In the past ten by-elections many of the people elected have been from smaller parties or Independents. We would see people responding to candidates who presented a strong parliamentary agenda and wanted to do the larger policy work.

I would like it to happen for future generations. What we do here might affect future generations for the next 90 to 200 years; God only knows. I do not want to be part of a Government that knows we have failed fundamentally, yet fails to reform. It would set us up to fail again. I would like see to more fundamental reform than in the past four years and we still have an opportunity to do it. With possibly 16 months before the next general election, there is adequate time for the Government to move the reform agenda forward. I hope it will happen.

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