Fresh start turns to false dawn

The Government must stop spinning and show steel in overhauling how Irish politics works, writes Micheál Martin TD

ON JULY 1st 1937 the Irish people enacted Bunreacht na hÉireann. Across Europe, Fascist and Communist governments dominated the political landscape in a dark era for European history. Yet in those bleak days, under the leadership of Éamon de Valera and with the support of a skilled team of civil servants, Ireland created an enduring document founded on the best traditions of liberal democratic government and the assertion of Irish independence. It was a remarkable achievement that has provided the Irish people with a rock of stability that was ahead of its time in 1937.

In 2012, Ireland faces new social challenges and we cannot shy away from fundamental reform.

In February 2011 the people delivered a strong, clear message that the old way of doing politics was finished. Our Constitution needs to be updated and improved to rise to new challenges. The government parties set forward a series of measures to overhaul how politics works, hold a constitution day, end cronyism and transform the Dáil. Yet this new beginning for Irish politics has proven to be a false dawn built on little more than political spin. Instead of the real reform we need, they have delivered a damp squib. We now have a deeply flawed Constitutional Convention that will be dominated by politicians and restricted to the Government’s agenda.

Big issues such as holding the Government to account or attracting expertise into politics have been ignored. Instead the Convention will start by looking at trivial matters such as reducing the presidential term to 5 years.

Behind all the spin, the government is betraying their election promise to change politics. The Constitutional Convention is severely limited by a pre-set agenda. It will contain one third politicians who will inevitably dominate proceedings and has limited resources in terms of outside expertise on complex constitutional issues.

Perhaps most importantly it will be up to the Government to act on the issues decided by the Convention, unlike other citizen assemblies used in Canada and the Netherlands. The cynical approach of the government to the convention was fully exposed last week when the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter put forward a series of changes in relation to overhauling the court structure and the power of the President, but did not feel the need to refer these issues to the Constitutional Convention. What is the Convention for if not to discuss fundamental changes to the Constitution?

Priorities are important in politics. Governments have to drive on reform and overcome in-built institutional inertia. They must take leadership and responsibility for a project and see it through to completion. This leadership takes energy, effort and time. A Constitutional Convention that wastes energy on relatively trivial matters is squandering the chance to introduce necessary reform; it shows the government’s clear de-prioritisation of the political reform agenda. It is letting the opportunity for change slip from its grasp and indulging in cynical political spin instead.

Fianna Fáil has consistently argued that Ireland needs holistic, comprehensive political reform from local government to the Cabinet. Our political life has suffered from the vacuum of power in local government, the overemphasis of local constituency work at the expense of national issues and the dominance of the government over all aspects of the work of the national parliament.

We need to ensure proper accountability by the government to the Oireachtas, attract real expertise and diversity into political life, overhaul the committee system and ensure proper resources for the Opposition. Reinvigorating Irish democracy by facilitating enhanced citizen participation through the innovative use of IT should also be a key goal of reform.

The Government needs to start showing political steel and foresight, instead of just using the convention as an arena for policy issues that the government parties disagree on.

* Micheál Martin TD is the leader of Fianna Fáil.