Elections 2011.
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It's been almost 72 hours since polling closed on Saturday, and almost 60 since counting started, and the shape of the 31st Dáil, bar a couple of constituencies' TDs (my own Galway West among them) is clear. We're probably going to have a Fine Gael-Labour coalition, which I don't think will be the worst government we've ever had. I'm going to leave analysis of who should get which cabinet ministries and so on to people who know what they're talking about. For the moment, I'm going to concentrate on other things.
These elections have really made me believe, a little, in politics again. I was very into it about six or seven years ago, but then I became very apathetic. Being away from home now, at election time, and not being able to vote has piqued my interest. I love the count, our funny PR-STV system and the twists and turns it gives us. This election, I've been glued to the Radio 1 online and, from today, to Twitter, for results and updates.
Ireland needs to find some way of enfranchising its citizens who are recently emigrated. A sensible time frame should be used: for example, up to five years after you leave Ireland. There are people who are opposed to emigrant votes, and some of their arguments need to be dealt with. They say that Irish citizens abroad do not pay tax in Ireland, and are therefore not entitled to vote. Brendan Linnane, in a letter to today's Irish Times, holds this view. He thinks that Irish people abroad should "calculate how much tax they would be paying if resident in Ireland, and remit that amount to the Department of Finance". This view is both unconstitutional and undemocratic. The Constitution (16.1.2° - see footnote below*) states that all citizens shall have the right to vote in Dáil elections. Granted, this does not say anything either way about the rights of citizens outside the state, but it (along with the rest of Article 18) does not make any connection between financial standing and the franchise. This connection is something reformers spent a lot of the 19th and 20th centuries trying to break. The Constitution also establishes the equality of all citizens before the law, in Article 40.1: "All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law." Mr Linnane's viewpoint is also dangerously undemocratic: would he have the thousands of Irish citizens outside the tax net barred from voting, just because they do not pay money to the state? If people have an objection to non-residents voting, that's fine, but please don't make arguments that contradict the Constitution or that imply that one person is better than another for his ability to pay taxes.
Coming up to this election, political reform was discussed a lot. One outcome of this has been the website reformcard.com, which rates the various parties' manifestos on their reform proposals according to very specific criteria (25 in all, in five fields). I think the two biggest threats to a healthy democracy in Ireland are the weakness of local democracy and the stifling bureaucracy of quangos, boards, commissions and other bodies. If local councils were stronger, they would attract more genuinely local politicians who at present aim for the Dáil. My dad said on the phone last night, when we were discussing the Galway West results, that he hoped Seán Kyne would get in, because they need someone in their part of the county. And that's the concern a lot of people have when they vote. While the Dáil is the national assembly, and should represent all citizens, everywhere, most of the grievances that people have, and which aspiring TDs promise to deal with, are not, or should not be, Dáil responsibilities. I'm thinking particularly of local roads, schools and waste collection. Problems that only affect one county should be dealt with by that county, and problems that contain the whole country should concern the Dáil. Local authorities need clearly defined responsibilities and the powers to carry them out. As for quangos and the like, I like Labour's idea (in their manifesto) of making all current quangos justify their existence to taxpayers, and obliging all new ones to either justify their continued existence or by abolished. A lot of these bodies duplicate the work of ministries and elected bodies, and are a waste of money.
Another letter in Monday's Irish Times condemns the media for their obsession with the election results and condemns the way they seem to turn them into cheap entertainment. The thing is that for many, like me, it is a spectator sport, but a sport with a great benefit to the electorate: transparency. Anyone can see how their vote made a difference and where, if applicable, it was transferred to. What would such people prefer: that our ballots were secretly counted in a locked room with no cameras and no reporters? These are our votes, and they deserve the most public exposure possible.
I'm still holding on for the results of the Galway West recount! It's funny to read the angry messages people are tweeting from Leisureland (the site of the count in Galway). Fidelma Healy-Eames, the woman who ordered a recount after not being impressed at how few transfers she got (on the tenth count, as far as I understand, after Sinn Féin's Trevor Ó Clochartaigh was eliminated), is not popular. I don't know what Fine Gael were thinking when they decided to run four candidates there. They managed to get four out of five in Mayo, but come on, that's (a) Enda Kenny's constituency and (b) a much less diverse place, politically and socially, than Galway West. It seems that Galway West and Wicklow (also still recounting!) have a reputation for being slowcoaches, so at least tradition is being honoured.
Stop the press! We have an announcement from the recount! Oh, what a let-down. After a whole day of waiting, all we got is a recount of first preferences with minor differences - the biggest change was that Seán Kyne (FG) lost 23 votes.
*The Constitution of Ireland, Article 16.1.2°: "(i) all citizens, (ii) such other citizens in the state as may be determined by law, without distinction of sex who have reached the age of eighteen years and who are not disqualified by law and who comply with the provisions of the law relating to the election of members of Dáil Éireann, shall have the right to vote at an election for members of Dáil Éireann."
It's been almost 72 hours since polling closed on Saturday, and almost 60 since counting started, and the shape of the 31st Dáil, bar a couple of constituencies' TDs (my own Galway West among them) is clear. We're probably going to have a Fine Gael-Labour coalition, which I don't think will be the worst government we've ever had. I'm going to leave analysis of who should get which cabinet ministries and so on to people who know what they're talking about. For the moment, I'm going to concentrate on other things.
These elections have really made me believe, a little, in politics again. I was very into it about six or seven years ago, but then I became very apathetic. Being away from home now, at election time, and not being able to vote has piqued my interest. I love the count, our funny PR-STV system and the twists and turns it gives us. This election, I've been glued to the Radio 1 online and, from today, to Twitter, for results and updates.
Ireland needs to find some way of enfranchising its citizens who are recently emigrated. A sensible time frame should be used: for example, up to five years after you leave Ireland. There are people who are opposed to emigrant votes, and some of their arguments need to be dealt with. They say that Irish citizens abroad do not pay tax in Ireland, and are therefore not entitled to vote. Brendan Linnane, in a letter to today's Irish Times, holds this view. He thinks that Irish people abroad should "calculate how much tax they would be paying if resident in Ireland, and remit that amount to the Department of Finance". This view is both unconstitutional and undemocratic. The Constitution (16.1.2° - see footnote below*) states that all citizens shall have the right to vote in Dáil elections. Granted, this does not say anything either way about the rights of citizens outside the state, but it (along with the rest of Article 18) does not make any connection between financial standing and the franchise. This connection is something reformers spent a lot of the 19th and 20th centuries trying to break. The Constitution also establishes the equality of all citizens before the law, in Article 40.1: "All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law." Mr Linnane's viewpoint is also dangerously undemocratic: would he have the thousands of Irish citizens outside the tax net barred from voting, just because they do not pay money to the state? If people have an objection to non-residents voting, that's fine, but please don't make arguments that contradict the Constitution or that imply that one person is better than another for his ability to pay taxes.
Coming up to this election, political reform was discussed a lot. One outcome of this has been the website reformcard.com, which rates the various parties' manifestos on their reform proposals according to very specific criteria (25 in all, in five fields). I think the two biggest threats to a healthy democracy in Ireland are the weakness of local democracy and the stifling bureaucracy of quangos, boards, commissions and other bodies. If local councils were stronger, they would attract more genuinely local politicians who at present aim for the Dáil. My dad said on the phone last night, when we were discussing the Galway West results, that he hoped Seán Kyne would get in, because they need someone in their part of the county. And that's the concern a lot of people have when they vote. While the Dáil is the national assembly, and should represent all citizens, everywhere, most of the grievances that people have, and which aspiring TDs promise to deal with, are not, or should not be, Dáil responsibilities. I'm thinking particularly of local roads, schools and waste collection. Problems that only affect one county should be dealt with by that county, and problems that contain the whole country should concern the Dáil. Local authorities need clearly defined responsibilities and the powers to carry them out. As for quangos and the like, I like Labour's idea (in their manifesto) of making all current quangos justify their existence to taxpayers, and obliging all new ones to either justify their continued existence or by abolished. A lot of these bodies duplicate the work of ministries and elected bodies, and are a waste of money.
Another letter in Monday's Irish Times condemns the media for their obsession with the election results and condemns the way they seem to turn them into cheap entertainment. The thing is that for many, like me, it is a spectator sport, but a sport with a great benefit to the electorate: transparency. Anyone can see how their vote made a difference and where, if applicable, it was transferred to. What would such people prefer: that our ballots were secretly counted in a locked room with no cameras and no reporters? These are our votes, and they deserve the most public exposure possible.
I'm still holding on for the results of the Galway West recount! It's funny to read the angry messages people are tweeting from Leisureland (the site of the count in Galway). Fidelma Healy-Eames, the woman who ordered a recount after not being impressed at how few transfers she got (on the tenth count, as far as I understand, after Sinn Féin's Trevor Ó Clochartaigh was eliminated), is not popular. I don't know what Fine Gael were thinking when they decided to run four candidates there. They managed to get four out of five in Mayo, but come on, that's (a) Enda Kenny's constituency and (b) a much less diverse place, politically and socially, than Galway West. It seems that Galway West and Wicklow (also still recounting!) have a reputation for being slowcoaches, so at least tradition is being honoured.
Stop the press! We have an announcement from the recount! Oh, what a let-down. After a whole day of waiting, all we got is a recount of first preferences with minor differences - the biggest change was that Seán Kyne (FG) lost 23 votes.
*The Constitution of Ireland, Article 16.1.2°: "(i) all citizens, (ii) such other citizens in the state as may be determined by law, without distinction of sex who have reached the age of eighteen years and who are not disqualified by law and who comply with the provisions of the law relating to the election of members of Dáil Éireann, shall have the right to vote at an election for members of Dáil Éireann."