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.