We’ve long condemned cronyism, but our system is still gripped by vested interests
TOHE Ireland which is emerging from the EU/IMF bailout programme is basically the same Ireland that was engulfed in economic crisis five years ago. We are less well off, incomes have been decimated and hundreds of thousands of our young people have been forced to emigrate.
But have we learned anything? Have we changed the culture in Ireland? Have we tackled the seemingly diametrically opposing ideals of extreme greed or total state dependency? Have we f undamentally changed how we engage in planning, policymaking or decision-making? Have we developed a new economic or social model? Have we addressed the failings in the political system that led us to catastrophe? The answer is no. It is beginning to look more and more like business as usual.
The reality is that the Irish system of governance serves those who have the capacity to heavily influence policy. This is what alienates our citizens and causes them to believe that nothing ever can, or ever does, change.
A number of vested interests have easy and regular access to elected members of parliament and Government. These vested interests are not just wealthy property developers, bankers or major party donors; it runs much deeper than that.
A vested interest is not always defined by wealth. A vested interest is defined by the grip that they have over policy and decisionmaking. This grip can be formed either from the aligned personal or party interest of the policy maker, or by an elected representative whose principles have been corroded by the political system.
This corrosion leads the representatives to believe the trappings of office and party loyalty should take precedence over the political convictions that may have brought them into politics in the first place.
Put simply, trade union leaders, ‘big four’ accountancy firms, ‘big four’ solicitor firms, top senior counsel barristers, global multinational chief executives, US vulture funds, bank chief executives, property developers, newspaper editors and, in some cases badly run charities headed by well-connected figures, have a grip over policy making that is unparalleled in most other countries in Europe.
A weak party system combined with the weakest parliament in Europe means the vested interests can run riot over the country without the electorate necessarily noticing, until things go spectacularly wrong. UR political party system is very small and increasi ngly exclusive. Every party can organise, control, or stifle membership participation as they see fit. A truly democratically accountable party system however would allow for party members to vote on policy manifestos at a local level, have these manifestos brought to the national level and have genuine membership votes, contributions and debates on what policy issues such a party might stand for.
This may have happened in the past – but no more. Today’s party manifestos are determined by opinion polling, f ocus groups and unelected ‘advisers’. It is astonishing that members and elected representatives accept this without demanding reform.
To take advantage of a reformed party system though, a reformed Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann is required.
The whip system which allows a taoiseach or leader of the day to essentially enforce a diktat of how an elected member should vote leads to two things: policy inertia and reduced transparency.
There is no other walk of Irish life that I can think of that operates the way in which Dáil Éireann does in passing legislation. It is regularly the case that the bell rings in Leinster House indicating a vote and members vote on Bills without even knowing the title of the legislation, let alone its content. The member will however be abundantly clear on what way they are to vote because the party whip will have given instructions.
It is probably impossible, given the resources and demands of an average member of parliament to have read every piece of legislation that is voted on, but there is no doubt that if the whip was loosened, it would generate a much greater degree of public debate on legislation that has enormous impact on people’s daily lives as well as people’s jobs.
People talk regularly of apathy amongst the general public toward politics arising from continued declining voter turnout, but there is very little focus on the apathy of members of Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann. I firmly believe that apathy towards national issues, where the member knows they will be told what way to vote, has a lo t more to do with the party whip, and a lot less to do with our electoral system.
The principal role of an elected member of parliament is to shape, debate and vote on national legislation. The recent committee hearings into the appalling revelations in relation to the Central Remedial Clinic and Irish Water are good examples of the other role that members of Dáil Éireann can play, and that is scrutinising how Irish citizens’ tax revenue is being spent.
The success of these committee hearings in revealing incredibly poor governance and oversight should lead to new legislation and new regulation to oversee charities that are funded by the State. This is where the debate should move.
One further challenge we face, that is connected with the undue influ- ence of vested interests and the weakness of parliament in Ireland, is the way in which we appoint state boards, quangos and the judiciary.
WE have long condemned cronyism and political strokes in this country, but we still largely accept them as the norm. It is easy to look at the line-up on a number of very influential boards and understand the political affiliation of the members. One board member of a semi- state company recently told me that as far as he could ascertain, he was the only member of the board who is not or has not been a card-carrying member of one political party. This must change, with an i ndependent appointment system, fully accountable to the Oireachtas, established.
Similarly, the politics in judicial appointments stands out among our peers in Europe. Since the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, an independent body, was established in 1995, little has changed. While the group does initially assess applications from members of the legal profession hoping for judicial appointment, the lists of suitable candidates furnished to Government to select from are so long that the decisions are ultimately extremely political.
Obviously political party support should not exclude a good candidate from consideration, but it ought not be the only condition for appointment, as is often the case.
Good governance, independence and the national interest is what politics should be about, but without reform of the system and the institutions, citizens’ disengagement and mistrust of politicians will continue and so will the lack of transparency and scrutiny that allows certain vested interests have a disproportionate and corrosive influence over our entire society.
It is time to clean up our act, or else we will enter into the next phase of Ireland’s history destined to repeat all of the avoidable mistakes of the past.