George Lee

So George Lee has announced his resignation from Fine Gael and the Dáil. All this after only being elected last June in a blaze of glory. Why?

Early comments have tended to follow the line already being peddled by Fine Gael - he's a prima donna; wanted to be running things when he wasn't a wet day in the place, etc,. Perhaps this is partly true. But I think if we dig a bit deeper we will see a truth to George Lee's decision that has less to do with him and an awful lot to do with the deficiencies of our political and parliamentary system.

George Lee TD seems to have run slap-bang into the wall of irrelevance that is the lot of the modern TD. He clearly thought that, once he had been elected, he would be at the centre of policymaking in the main opposition party and would have a key role in formulating a response to the economic crisis. The fact that a senior journalist of long-standing could actually have believed this, is the real personal failing of Lee in this sorry saga.

The disgust and frustration that has driven Lee to throw in the towel after such a short time is a crystal-clear warning to the rest of us that the system is dangerously broken. That a man of his talent and enthusiasm was so badly misplaced in our national parliament speaks volumes as to the creaking culture of seniority and pettiness in our major parties. This is the same culture that sees the continuous advancement of front-bench spokesmen in the major parties who clearly haven't the first idea about the briefs on which they have been chosen to speak. Rather, they are chosen for the age-old reason that they have been around longer than anyone else, or come from an electorally tricky part of the country, so the profile needs to be 'upped' to keep the folks back home happy.

Lee fell into this quicksand of mediocrity where his own high profile, educational qualifications and insight were of no use to him whatsoever, compared to the semi-literate know-nothings who were cluttering up the benches around him.

George Lee is lucky enough to have a job in RTE to return to. This is a luxury the rest of us don't enjoy so there is no need to feel too sorry for him. But we can thank him for being our emissary from the real world who ventured into the arcane darkness of the Irish political system and returned to tell us it is no longer fit for purpose.

Accountability

Proposals for electoral reform are currently bobbing up in the papers and on the airwaves; some of them more sensible than others. But what seems to be missing from the general debate is any vision as to how tinkering with the system (for that is what it amounts to) will contribute to a new beginning for the Irish Republic as a whole.

Some commentators point to the political system as being the Irish Republic itself, treating with scant regard the other elements of national life of which they have little experience. Others acknowledge the interests of wider society but sincerely believe that certain changes – reducing the number of seats in the Dáil, widening the electorate of the Senate – would be enough to solve the most glaring flaws in the system.

Change to our existing system, up to and including a new Constitution, is not to be undertaken lightly, which is why when we do set out to create a second republic we’d better do it right!

Already a consensus is forming around the main elements of change that need to be achieved in the Irish system: a radical reduction in the membership of parliament; strengthening of the presidency; a radical overhaul of the proportional representation voting system to eliminate clientelism and parochialism; the possible introduction of primaries to choose candidates; major reform of local government.

All these changes are necessary and urgent. However we need to think of the framework in which politics operates, i.e., its administration. In terms of national government this is the civil and public service, while local government has many layers of bureaucracy that need to be considered.

Any political decision is only as good as its implementation. Needless to say, if political reform runs into the quicksand of bureaucratic inertia or hostility, it is as good as useless. This is why administrative failures are just as important a problem to tackle as the more obvious political failures.

Reform of the public service is a process that should be ongoing in any well-run system. But the lack of political will or direction that the current system has instilled into our politicians has allowed stagnation and a self-serving attitude to take deep root in ours.

Detailed reform of personnel and procedures has to be undertaken. But the only sure way to create a permanent change in the day-to-day running of the country is to create an overarching value system to which every public servant can adhere. This calls for a simple innovation – accountability.

If it was the case that a minister or his departmental staff knew they would be held accountable for their decisions, even to the end of their lives, there can be little doubt that the egregious mismanagement we have witnessed from previous governments would not have occurred.

No public official should feel themselves “entitled” to waste millions of euros of our money on a whim. No public servant should be able to bankroll pet projects or indulge in social engineering at the public expense without having to fear the consequences of their petty empire-building.

A second republic can be created very easily with all sorts of innovations to the body politic. The trick will be to make a durable and useful organism that grows and beds down with the Irish nation. The only sure way to achieve that is to instil responsibility into all its servants. This can only be done through constitutionally enhanced accountability, with no exceptions.