New politics? No, it’s just slower politics
WHY should we expect the Government to pass legislation when the Dáil can’t even agree on what it wants to talk about on a weekly basis?
In this “do-nothing Dáil”, deciding on a schedule of what will be discussed and debated has slowly evolved into a weekly farce.
And, almost a year after Fine Gael joined up with a motley crew of Independent TDs to form a minority Government backed by Fianna Fáil, just 23 pieces of legislation have been enacted.
Compare that to the previous government, which after coming into power in 2011 passed 42 pieces of legislation in its first year.
While the opposition parties and groupings continue to put down buckets of private members’ bills, nothing seems to come out the other end of the legislative machine; in fact there are now 140 pieces of legislation stuck in the system, many of them going nowhere.
But far from the important work of enacting new laws, TDs often can’t even agree on what work to do when they make their way up to Leinster House each week.
Every Tuesday a member of the Dáil’s business committee — which was set up under the banner of new politics to allow greater input from all sides of the chamber — stands up and announces the agreed order of business for the coming days.
And, more often than not, this carefully considered schedule is objected to, sending the members of the Business Committee back into conclave.
As one TD put it, those who have been selected to represent their political parties at the committee are frequently thrown under the bus in the Dáil by their own party leader, who decides the scheduling is just not right.
In some cases, events can take over, such as US President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, or the revelations of the Tuam mother and baby homes.
But many have branded the pleas to change scheduling as “cynical”.
Independent TD and member of the business committee Mattie McGrath believes it is “naked party political one-upmanship” as all parties and none want to be seen as championing the cause in the Dáil.
This is just another symptom of an ailing political system which was wrapped up in the shiny packaging of new politics just one year ago.
But every elected member of Leinster House will now agree that the shine has quickly rubbed off.
The new brand of politics has led to much guff but little substance, as evidenced by the 23 pieces of legislation fully passed since the minority Government came into existence last May.
Back then there were all kinds of aspirations around a fresh way of doing business in what had been an archaic Dáil, but those aspirations haven’t translated well in reality.
In the change of one government, those in Leinster House tried to go from an antiquated system where the guillotine was often used to cut political discourse and opposition had little chance of ever getting legislation over the line, to a happy-clappy Dáil full of communication.
We now have a system that is in ways paralysed by communication, and a Government that has been severely weakened by it.
This was evident when Taoiseach Enda Kenny chose to meet with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin before he even brought details of the Charleton Inquiry to his own Cabinet colleagues.
While new politics promised better politics, it has in fact delivered slower politics.
As Fianna Fáil whip Michael Moynihan put it: “You can’t create a utopia”.
