Labour Party TD for Dublin South and Minister of State for Primary Care, Alex White, will be Labour’s Director of Elections for the two upcoming referenda to abolish Seanad Eireann and to establish a Civil Court of Appeal.
The level of trust and confidence in politicians is at an all-time low. That is absolutely true. Any Member who is in contact with people - I am sure that is the case with all of my colleagues - must know that there is an unprecedented level of anger and frustration evident across all levels of society. The question of expenses is but one flashpoint. It is, however, a serious flashpoint. This matter arose earlier in the year in Britain and a debate on the fundamental issues involved came about as a result. That debate went to the very heart of the constitution, no less, of that country.
There is a serious issue with which we must deal. There is no substitute for people in public life exercising their own judgement in respect of both their actions and what they do with public money. If every single person in public life is not prepared to exercise judgment over what he or she is doing in respect of the use of public money, there is no hope with regard to the restoration of public trust and confidence in politics or the political system.
I asked the Leader of the Seanad a question in respect of that matter. The question to which I refer relates to the trust and confidence of the public in the debate in which we will be obliged to engage in the coming months with regard to the overall budgetary situation and the serious difficulties we face. I wish to ask a single, tight question. Has a Government decision been made in respect of the figure of €4 billion required to be obtained in savings in December’s budget? Has the Government decided to change the balance which it indicated would apply in respect of that €4 billion, namely, that there would be €2.5 billion in expenditure cuts and €1.5 billion in taxation measures? When was it decided that the entire €4 billion in savings would be obtained through public expenditure cuts? Was a decision made and when was it made?
Everyone has a view on the correct balance that should apply and we could engage in a debate on the matter. However, in the first instance I wish to know the answer to the question I have posed. As stated last week, during the summer the McCarthy report and the report of the Commission on Taxation were published. In my naivety, I had understood that these reports would form the basis for the debate in which we were going to engage this autumn. The McCarthy report contains much that I do not like but it sets out in stark terms where expenditure is being made and where there may be opportunities for savings. There is much with which I agree and much with which I disagree in the report. However, at least it is a written document. The Commission on Taxation’s report sets out the basis on which we might reform the tax system in the future.
We were, therefore, presented with the McCarthy report on expenditure and the commission report on taxation. I accept that matters are not that simple but at least these reports could provide us with some assistance. However, we have been informed that the report of the Commission on Taxation has been abandoned. In addition, and if we are to believe the newspapers, it appears that rather than going through the detail of the McCarthy report and engaging in the requisite debate, the Government intends to have one or two major whacks, as it were. In other words, it will have a go at either public service pay or social welfare payments. That is just not good enough because it contributes to the lack of trust. If the Government wants the Opposition to put forward proposals for discussion, why then is it not possible to engage in a debate on these reports, which were commissioned in our name, rather than merely jettisoning them?
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley TD has just confirmed to the Dáil that the government will move the writ so that the by-elections in Dublin South and Dublin Central will take place on Friday June 5th.
I welcome the announcement and after what will be 11 months, the people of Dublin South will finally have a full representation in the Dáil.
On a wintry doorstep in south Dublin this week I was asked “Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?”
Good question.
As we struggle to come to terms with the severity of the recession, people are entitled to ask what difference politicians can make; or what difference politics itself can make.
I wonder whether we are deluding ourselves that our democracy works at all.
We seem to have lost sight of the promise of politics and the value of collective action. In recent years success has been measured solely in terms of individual achievement. Even the practice of politics proved susceptible to this trend. But there are limits to the ideology of individualism.
Instead of a collective approach to the provision of quality healthcare, childcare, education and care of senior citizens on the basis of need, irrespective of income, we have opted – often by default – for inequality and second-rate public services.
All of this has become obvious now as we rub our eyes after the mirage of the boom.
At the same time as income taxes were being reduced, the concept of public provision was being quietly eroded by the political ideology of individual provision. In effect what the government was saying was “every man for himself”, making it all the harder now for them to appeal to our collective consciousness.
But when did we make these choices?
In which election did we vote to abandon the principle of solidarity and collective provision in favour of a creed of “greed is good”?
In my view, the economic crisis is not the only challenge we face.
We face a destructive crisis of confidence in our democratic system.
The political system failed us during the so-called boom years. With few exceptions, the Dail did not provide a forum for real political debate about the economic choices we should make, and the kind of society we saw fit to create. A forum of debate was reduced to a chamber of silence. A place where the less said the better if you wanted to safeguard your electoral prospects – an approach memorably endorsed by the former Taoiseach Mr Ahern, who saw electoral politics as all about “getting in and staying in.” It’s hardly surprising then that so many people see the Dail as an exclusive club, whose members are pre-occupied with electoral survival above all else.
Perhaps the worst manifestation of how sick our system has become has been the needless expansion in the number of Ministers of State, each of whom enjoys the support of civil servants to “mind” their constituencies. In what was a telling justification of this excessive indulgence, Minister of State John McGuinness defended the practice on the grounds that Ministers are the “A&E ward of Government departments”.
“We pick up all of the pieces that are simply not functioning”, he added.
This very neatly sums up our predicament: Ministers of State, many without any clear executive responsibilities, using public resources – taxpayers’ money – to shore up their constituency profiles and, by extension, their electoral prospects.
This is simply not acceptable in a democracy – to say nothing of the enormous cost involved. Surely the answer to a non-functioning system lies in reform of the system itself, rather than substituting this questionable and self-serving “A&E ward” for proper government?
This kind of ‘politics as usual’ has to be challenged. It has to be changed.
We need to review the system of multi-seat constituencies, which fosters senseless competition within political parties and encourages clientelism. We need a radical reassessment of the value and function of all of our political institutions, including Seanad Eireann. The banking crisis has exposed the lack of any meaningful parliamentary scrutiny of financial and economic matters.
We should renew and strengthen our Freedom of Information laws, and include every single area of public administration and governance, allowing for exceptions only on the most compelling grounds. The current system of local administration must be replaced by a real and responsive system of local government. New technologies offer a real opportunity for expanding access by citizens to policy-making and public debate.
Political parties too have a responsibility to re-articulate and justify their policy platforms for the modern era. Again and again voters tell us that they struggle to differentiate between parties on policy grounds – especially between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Debate and even sharp disagreement between political parties is crucial to any democracy. But where their differences are rooted in forgotten contests, clearly the voters are not being presented with meaningful choices.
It is not enough to bemoan low participation rates and decreasing voter turnout. When we do this, or when we talk about the widespread lack of respect for politicians and the political process, we must come up with answers.
A radical renewal of our democracy is necessary. If people believe that the system is dysfunctional, then it is dysfunctional, and there is little point in politicians complaining that they are misunderstood.
I believe that we should act quickly to address these critical issues. We could do it through a radical programme of Democratic Renewal which would include a series of proposals for constitutional change. All of this should be subject to the widest possible public engagement and participation. Politics is far too important to be left solely to the politicians.
I believe that we can grasp this opportunity to turn the prevailing despondency, apathy and contempt for politics into positive political engagement. And such an initiative should not have to wait for the economy to turn around. It should begin now.
It need not be a partisan exercise. And it might just mean that politics and politicians (the current crop and those to come) really could become part of the solution, and not part of the problem.
This week sees the beginning of my campaign to secure the support of the people of Dublin South in the forthcoming by-election.
Over the coming weeks, I will be out and about meeting the people of Dublin south, listening to their views on the challenges we face together, and sharing with them my perspective on the need now for a fresh approach to politics.
To mark the beginning to this intensive period of campaigning, we have mounted a short outdoor advertising campaign which will run on bus shelters and Luas across the constituency.
Remember to keep an eye on the website and blog and I have just launched my new Facebook page. You can become a supporter of mine on Facebook and receive regular updates from the campaign trail, along with receiving notification on the where we’ll be canvassing.
I hope to meet and exchange views with as many constituents as I can. In the meantime, you can contact me by using the ‘Contact Alex’ section of the site.
More :: Visit my Facebook page by clicking here
More :: Visit the main website at alexwhite.ie
There have been many congratulations for the former Taoiseach and we now have had a month of praise and thanksgiving. Much of it has been deserved, some of it less so, and some of it has been bordering on the nauseating. It is now time to get down to business. I wondered at one stage over the last few weeks whether the former Taoiseach would outdo Luciano Pavarotti, who has the world record of 165 curtain calls in a single performance. The former Taoiseach went close to that record.
While it is a matter for debate whether this is a new Government, it is an opportune moment for us to have that wider discussion. I ask the Leader to arrange for the new Taoiseach to come into this House and to set out his ideas, his proposals and his vision for the post-Celtic tiger Ireland into which we are facing. Before we can get down to the important debates with individual Ministers, I would echo the call to bring in the Taoiseach to the Seanad for that type of debate. We can then grapple with the challenges that exist in the economy, such as the deepening inequalities that have characterised the last decade of growth, the spectacle of 190,000 children at risk of poverty in a country with such enormous wealth held by so few people.
If we had that debate, we could consider the sort of public service we want to have in this country, how we fund it, how we use the taxation system in order to bring about a fairer society, and whether we want one health service for the well off and one for everybody else. I would like to hear the Taoiseach set out his stall on these issues in this House. The Opposition parties are also under a duty to put forward their ideas and their vision, and this would provide an excellent opportunity to do that. I join with my colleagues in congratulating the new Taoiseach, but I hope we get down to business today. I would welcome the opportunity to have such a debate at the earliest possible occasion.
