separate national and local politics through a smaller Dail and council reform

We need a citizens assembly of some sort to define current policy and practice on the issues of the day. And we need the politics of the local Fix-It reps, who in the best examples attract positive developments to their areas, support their constituents in their engagements with the State and hav... more

We need a citizens assembly of some sort to define current policy and practice on the issues of the day. And we need the politics of the local Fix-It reps, who in the best examples attract positive developments to their areas, support their constituents in their engagements with the State and have an ear for all with the courage to speak.

Unfortunately we have a system where our citizens' assembly representatives, TDs, do both jobs – the legislator and the local man. Our politics will not thrive until we separate the functions.

So let there be a Dail of some 60 or 70 legislators elected. Let them spend their time deciding policy and practice in relation to the key areas of State Governance. Let them use power point or other tools to make their cases, or have the authority to invite experts to support their views.

Let them have authority in 5 key areas:

1. International relations – assess and assimilate the impact of WTO treaties and international agreements on our laws, culture and economy

2. European matters – establish our position in relation to various EU Directive proposals and explore their potential consequences

3. Management of State Services – Education, Welfare, Health, Defense, Justice and all other State sponsored and regulated activities

4. Finances – endowed with the power of taxation, responsible for keeping the State’s balance sheet in order

5. Planning for a long term sustainable futures – new regulations, policies and practices to transition to the future where we emit 80% less carbon by 2050.

As of now our political system over-focuses on the management of State Services and the finances of the nation. But the truth is that we have accepted our role in the globalised world, and international developments have a huge impact on our isolated, island life. We need a more efficient national politics that focusses on issues, policies, practices and planning rather than the PR driven soap opera of mock dispute.

If we really want to think radically, then the Dail representation should be reduced to 78 (three per county). They should be paid 30% above the average wage. No expenses as the 30% payment over and above the average wage would compensate for expenses claims. They should only be entitled to one pension on mandatory retirement at 66 years and the pension should be either the Old Age Pension or TDs pension or If they achieve the level, Minister's pension. Taoiseach's pension should be abolished as should the other perks of the role. Also, the salaries of senior civil servants should be reduced the level of TDs. By doing this we would be providing the politicans and senior civil servanys with a powerful incentive to ensure that the wages of the working people are not dimished on a political whim as is happening at the moment. Seanaid Eireann should be abolished as should the practice of senior politicans being allowed appoint persons to the boards of state or semi-state bodies. The number of Local Councillors should be slashed by 50% and their if they are in receipt of a wage or salary for their role, then they should not receive expences.

TD's salaries must be reduced, however, I do believe it should be higher than the avrage industrial wage to attract suitable persons who are willing to serve us as a nation. Saleries should be in line with other european countries equal to our population. I would propose reducing the number of TD's by at least 80, suspend the Senead for a 5 year period. It is the cabinet which runs the country, TD's only required to carry the vote. Park and sell all state cars. No Person should be paid to go to work. No Minister or TD should have paid advisors, we have the Civil Servants who are employed to undertake this function plus Ministers have their parties and grass roots to whom they should refer and listen to. Get rid of all quangos. No junkets whatever for 2 year period and thereafter with restricted maximun budget. No pensions while serving in government. Get rid of at least half the committee's, the ones required no extra payments should be paid. Review all government positions created in past 10 years and cull. Ground and sell the state jet. This country is broke, the lead MUST come from the top, common sense must apply, if we can't afford it we do without to maintain the basics and promote equity among our society.

This is just part of the anti-politics buzz. We have crap politics in Ireland, not because they are well paid, but because we have repeatedly elected an overwhelming majority of neo-liberals, or gombeen localist clientelist fools.

Politics costs money to be involved in at a senior level. Suggesting that people would still be willing to sacrifice a home life, so they could work 60 or 70 hour weeks, with no real off time, is non sensical. People wouldn't do it. We have doctors, lawyers, teachers, and many more, from all perspectives seeking election to the Dail. Are you seriously suggesting that when faced with providing for their family or heading to the Dail, that they wouldn't choose providing for their families. It would weaken democracy and make it an activity of the elites or the obsessed.

As for limiting access to elected office based on family worth, many people who had a house and a bit of land fives years ago would be barred from office.

What we need is an end to clientelism and a new left progressive majority Dail. We also need to get rid of our electoral system, so that people are forced to vote for ideas, rather than who is good at fixing their gutters.

Yes reduce their wages, and reduce their numbers, but what do we replace them (& the senate & president) with ?

One concrete proposal is to let the people vote directly using "Barcode on paper" eVoting (one of the suggestions in this general forum .... see .... "We need ELECTRONIC VOTING (Safe & Secure) ...").

"Barcode on paper" eVoting means the votes cast are NOT stored on discs or in any electronic form, they are stored as printed barcodes (Ink on paper) and cannot be tampered with any more or less than the existing voting system can be. The votes are still on paper. They are still placed in a ballot box. There are no electronic copies to tamper with.

The printed ballots will have to have a human readable vote on it as well, which the voter can read & check, so the ballot papers will automatically form a paper audit trail, and manual re-counts will be possible, as will random sampling and checking.

The votes could be quickly counted, using inexpensive scanners (< €100 for the cheapest when buying just 1) to scan the barcodes (which would store the constituency & polling station info and the voters inputs/choices in a single barcode)

The official vote scanning & tallying software would be important software, and would have to be thoroughly tested and be open to public scrutiny. No problem there, there are plenty of people prepared to write this software - me included - and provide it free of costs, free of copyright & free of intellectual property right restrictions, with full source code available for widespread testing & scrutiny)

In addition thousands of people in Ireland would be capable of checking any ballot because all you have to do is scan the barcodes into excel (or similar) and write simple macro's there to check the results. That is childs play to lots of younger people, so the political parties, independent candidates & special interest groups (Unions, Social groups and other proposers of changes), could write their own counting routines and run their own scans & counts to check the official results afterwards - under supervised conditions of course - where the paper ballots are managed in a safe & secure environment.

The system can run on ordinary PC's, no special equipment needed, because they are merely printing ballots not storing them, so no huge IT storage costs.
They can be school PC's one day and ballot machines the next. Plug in a memory stick and its a ballot machine, take it out and all the balloting capabilities & data are removed.

We'll always need polling booths to ensure people can vote in secret and cannot be bought or coerced into voting a particular way, but it'll still be cheaper, quicker and will strengthen the peoples grip on our own democracy.

With such a system in place where the voting & counting is safe & secure, and fast and in-expensive, the people can be consulted at low cost on many issues and we can eventually reduce significantly the numbers of politicians as well as their wages.

Reduce the wages of TDs. The proposal to slash politicians wages is appropriate.
Like bankers the less the politicians do, the more inefficient the work from TDst they continue to claim the same rewards.

A tiny island has a prime minister with one of the largest salaries in the developed world.
Pro rata the rest of them right down to the county councillors.
We must have reform, accountability and prosecution for negligence, waste of public funds etc

There is no incentive to be pro active.
Do nothing or worse waste public money and expect the rewards to remain unchanged.
Leadership from the front hardly means leading the field with the greatest amount of self reward , while the 500, 000 or more unemployed struggle to survive.( half a million are unmployed if self unemployed and emigrants are included.)
Spending scarce , borrowed money on large , chaufeur driven limos( 200,000 euros per year per car), jet flight to obscure summer schools while the limo follows on , empty , to collect at the airport) scandal after wasteful scandal.
This is corruption

I would add that the upper house should be elected randomly like Jury duty, on an annual or two yearly basis. |This would by definition represent the demographic of the people. They should be paid the average industrial wage. If this is more that they are on when called to duty, they will be pleased and if they fear that doing this job will mean a significant wage cut then they can afford to take out some form of insurance policy to cover this eventuality. we would get women, men, straight, gay , married, single parents, childfree, students, unemployed employed, self employed, literate, ill educated etc etc and in their work they would represent the sort of person that they are.