Electoral system needs voting out

■ Call it what you like – national spatial strategy or national planning framework – any such plan will never be properly executed as long as we have the current multi-seat PR electoral system. This system, while posing as a paragon of democracy, actually militates against good governance and planning in the national interest because it forces elected representatives to put local interest above the national interests.

Local representatives are forced at their peril to go against the national interest because if they don’t, they will be ousted at the next election. How many times have we witnessed sitting party TDs leaving to become Independents due to local issues, eg a hospital or a post office? Following the financial crash, there were passionate calls for electoral reform, buzzwords like ‘new politics’ and ‘we must reinvent the State’ were frequently heard on all the mainstream TV political debates. Whatever happened to that?

If we are seriously interested in changing this situation then we must scrap the current multi-seat system and introduce a single-seat transferable vote with constituencies elected by PR, with a not more than 100-seat Dáil.

This would make the Dáil much more efficient in its primary function, which is to enact legislation in the national interest.

If this system were introduced it would eliminate single-issue candidates being elected, and limit the power of splinter groups on the national political stage. Don’t hold your breath on this one.

Paul Connolly

Address with editor