My column in The Kerryman. 2 October, 2013
It was an easy decision in the end. I’ll be voting to rid this country of the parasitic Seanad, though it’s not a vital issue. Placed beside the pensions we pay to former government ministers, it’s tempting to ask why we aren’t voting on that particular breed of parasite too.
Speaking of parasites, we’d be better served discussing our TDs and what function, if any, they serve. Try to imagine an Ireland without the Seanad. It’s easy. That Ireland is exactly like this one. The Seanad does nothing and can do nothing. So keep that Ireland in your mind and then try to imagine an Ireland where the vast majority of TDs are utterly pointless and overpaid. Again easy, as that’s what our TDs are really like.
Now imagine an Ireland where the Government (by tradition, not by Constitutional requirement) gets its way almost the entire time, on whatever witless nonsense it comes out with. Yep, not much imagining required there either. That is the system of governance we have allowed evolve in this country.
Now try imagining an Ireland where a Taoiseach is gifted such power and influence, that he or she can appoint and dismiss Ministers at whim. An Ireland where a Taoiseach, a mere Prime Minister don’t forget, can decide to eliminate an entire house of parliament, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Have I tested your imagination yet? I don’t think so. That’s the power we cede, and cede means give up, to our TDs, who then cede it to the Taoiseach.
The Taoiseach has this much power because that’s what many people in this country want a Taoiseach to have. We have a tradition of wanting to be led by strong and charismatic men. That a Taoiseach is appointed by a committee of 166 people, who could eject him or her at the push of a button, does not alter the fact that many of us want to be led.
Opposing that tradition are people who see taoisigh as mere Chairpersons of sub-committees, or the Cabinet in this instance. To the Cabinet is delegated certain powers by the Dáil, who can remove those powers at a moment’s notice. It is a system of Committees which need not have built-in Government majorities. A system of committees that attempts to govern by consensus, instead of by majoritism. A system where all 166 TDs, retain a relevance above mere begging for medical cards and tarmac.
Try imagining that sort of Ireland. An Ireland where TDs from Kerry don’t compete with TDs from Roscommon for a hospital; who then compete with each other for the right to claim which of them it was who succeeded in depriving their fellow Irish citizens of a hospital. And then we reward them for it.
We have been taught that General Elections are ‘winner take all’ contests, when in reality they are a process of creating a body of people that is as broadly representative of the population as possible. That’s an amazing exercise in democracy, yet we insist on immediately neutering huge swathes of those representatives. They are paid a hundred grand a year to just do as they are told.
The Seanad is a bad joke, but a Dáil scared of its own power is no laughing matter.
