Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The main question the convention was obliged to decide in respect of our electoral system was whether to keep our system, that is, proportional representation by single transferable vote, PRSTV, or to replace it. The answer was a decisive "No" to replacing it and as the report states, "At the conclusion of the plenary meeting in June the result of the ballot was decisively in favour of keeping the current PRSTV electoral system". The vote was 79 to 20, which is in keeping with a national general election survey conducted in 2011. It was a substantial survey in which approximately 6,000 people were interviewed and again, the majority of the public was against moving away from PRSTV. Two referendums have been held on the subject in which the people opted decisively not to change to single-seat constituencies. Were one to introduce single-seat constituencies with proportional representation, which is called the alternative vote, it still would end up with the winner taking all and is undemocratic. That is the reason people wish to keep the PRSTV system, because it is the most democratic electoral system. Consequently, the two Deputies who spoke before me are very much out of sync with the view of the convention, with the view of the public and with decisions that people have taken by referendum. When we adopted PRSTV at the foundation of the State it was on foot of a civic movement. The idea was abroad in society that we were setting up a new State and should go for the best and most democratic system and we brought in PRSTV. Moreover in other assemblies, such as, for example, the citizens' assembly in British Columbia that was the model for our Constitutional Convention, the question was whether they would change their electoral system. They sought decisively to change to our system and in fact, a majority voted to do so in a referendum they held. It was just that the bar was too high, in that unlike our referendums, it was not a simple majority but the percentage required was much higher.

I very much disagree, as did the convention, with the view of Deputy Griffin that there is something wrong with our PRSTV in terms of how Members act as Deputies. Members are here to represent their constituencies in the Dáil, which is what "Teachta Dála" means. When Members legislate, as legislators they are supposed to bring what they learn from their constituents because Members are supposed to represent their constituents when they legislate. The two are not separate but are related and one informs the other. In that way, each citizen in the State is represented in the Dáil, as is each parish, town and village. All types of people are represented here when Members legislate and Deputies take on board their concerns when they do so. That often informs the debate and so it should, as Members cannot legislate in isolation from what they learn as representatives in their constituency work.

See this speech in context