Local Politics Versus National Representation
13/04/07 22:21 Filed in: Politics
I was down
Wicklow way earlier today, and spotted several more
pre-election posters. The common theme running
through all of them was that the candidates/TDs were
"working for Wicklow." This goes back to the old
maxim about all politics being local, but it also
goes to the heart of the Irish electoral system.
When we elect TDs to the Dáil, we are supposedly electing legislators who will act in the overall interest of the country (well, that's the theory anyway.) But of course that is not the practice. Politicians usually find their way to Kildare Street having been chosen by their local electorate on the basis of their positions on local issues, like schools, hospitals, etc. In some cases, a politician may feel obliged to put the interests of their local constituents over those of the country as a whole, even if they think privately that the national interest is more important.
Take for example two adjacent towns, in neighbouring constituencies, both of which have hospitals. The HSE may decide that all acute care be located in one hospital in order to allocate resources more efficiently. You can be damn sure that the constituency in which the hospital that "lost out" will not be happy about this, and will rely on their TDs to articulate that displeasure. Now even if those TDs took a dispassionate look at the situation and concluded that the decision taken was the correct one in the national interest, they might think twice about voicing that opinion. There might be an independent "hospital candidate" waiting in the long grass in the constituency, and the risk of losing their seat will help them make up their mind as to where they should stand on the issue.
This is why we have never been able to sort out such pressing issues as waste management and self-sufficiency in energy. Can you imagine any one of our current crop of TDs voting to have an incinerator or a nuclear power plant sited in their own constituency? We can't even debate these issues properly, because the local vested interests and the NIMBYs are the ones with the loudest voices.
So what can we do? Nothing really, short of a radical overhaul of how we elect our government. Until then we will always be at risk of having the national agenda scuppered by local politics.
When we elect TDs to the Dáil, we are supposedly electing legislators who will act in the overall interest of the country (well, that's the theory anyway.) But of course that is not the practice. Politicians usually find their way to Kildare Street having been chosen by their local electorate on the basis of their positions on local issues, like schools, hospitals, etc. In some cases, a politician may feel obliged to put the interests of their local constituents over those of the country as a whole, even if they think privately that the national interest is more important.
Take for example two adjacent towns, in neighbouring constituencies, both of which have hospitals. The HSE may decide that all acute care be located in one hospital in order to allocate resources more efficiently. You can be damn sure that the constituency in which the hospital that "lost out" will not be happy about this, and will rely on their TDs to articulate that displeasure. Now even if those TDs took a dispassionate look at the situation and concluded that the decision taken was the correct one in the national interest, they might think twice about voicing that opinion. There might be an independent "hospital candidate" waiting in the long grass in the constituency, and the risk of losing their seat will help them make up their mind as to where they should stand on the issue.
This is why we have never been able to sort out such pressing issues as waste management and self-sufficiency in energy. Can you imagine any one of our current crop of TDs voting to have an incinerator or a nuclear power plant sited in their own constituency? We can't even debate these issues properly, because the local vested interests and the NIMBYs are the ones with the loudest voices.
So what can we do? Nothing really, short of a radical overhaul of how we elect our government. Until then we will always be at risk of having the national agenda scuppered by local politics.