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

If one considers whether we should have larger constituencies, which was one of the recommendations, that is not necessarily something that must be done by changing the Constitution. It could be done by legislation. I would be in favour of that, as it of course would favour smaller parties much more, but it is much more democratic as well.

Changing the order of candidates on the ballot paper was one of the recommendations of the convention on the basis of a survey of opinion. I have my doubts about that because while I acknowledge there is a problem with people going from the top of the ballot paper to the bottom and there is a certain distortion in that regard, on the other hand, were the ordering all mixed up, I believe one would find people are accustomed to scanning the paper using their knowledge of the alphabet and the order in which it goes and finding the candidate for whom they wish to vote. Therefore, I question that second recommendation and it would warrant closer examination. As the Minister noted, probably the best place in which to give consideration to this recommendation is the electoral commission. As to one good thing in our system, I note that in Malta, they have PRSTV but it is ordered according to parties and consequently, voters simply stick within their parties and do not go across parties from one to the other. It is good that in our system, people move around whereby they might give their first preference to Fianna Fáil, their second preference to the Labour Party or whatever. This is a good thing about the system. While this makes the individual key to the process, a person's character is something people take into account when they vote for their representative.

As to how this worked, at the first session in May, the members of the convention considered whether we should examine other systems. They were open to looking at other systems and the one that got the majority was the mixed-member proportional system, MMP. The members of the convention ruled out list systems and so on and people were very much against those other systems. Consequently, the convention looked in detail at the mixed-member proportional system and when the convention members got the information about it, they could discern the pitfalls. They could see that it would be very difficult to have both multi-seat constituencies and people being elected on lists because in a way, as has been noted by Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, one is replicating. As list systems involve multi-seat constituencies, one would have two multi-seat constituency elections. One still would have interparty competition within both systems because that happens in other countries. Moreover, even in the case of countries in which they elect on lists, it was put to us by the people who had studied the other systems and had lived in other countries that they have constituency work too.

This is the case for people even if elected on lists, unless the system is a totally closed one, as in the case of Israel. The pitfalls were examined and a democratic deficit was identified. Representatives still do constituency work. Other countries are moving closer to our system rather than the other way round. Our system rather than those of other countries is considered the benchmark.

On the other matters surveyed, while the response of government is pretty good I believe many of the issues should be dealt with by the electoral commission. In my opinion, the issue of whether Deputies should resign when they become Ministers was not adequately considered by the convention. During discussion on the issue by the group with which I was involved I learned that when Ministers in France step down and somebody else takes their place, because they want to run again in their constituencies, they run as local mayors in order to keep up their profiles. In France, the Prime Minister can become a Mayor of Paris. It all comes down to local level everywhere. It is a universal phenomenon that people vote for who they know, which I think is positive. I disagree with those who say that is not the case. However, I would be wary of the proposal that Ministers should resign. I do not think it is practical or that it would achieve the outcome expected.

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