Gombeen politics

DEPUTY Ned O’Keeffe is to be congratulated on the honesty of his stance regarding Rathcormac national school in Co Cork. It is good to see an elected representative publicly demonstrate the type of self-serving gombeenism which many of us have long suspected to be common currency in national and local politics.

O’Keeffe insisted this school was not a priority for him as Rathcormac was not a place where he gained many votes. He knows this from the activities of the much-loved election tallymen. Media commentators were virtually unanimous in their condemnation of evoting, often on the basis that it would deprive them of several days entertainment at that blood sport known as “the count”.

The inevitable demise of the tallyman was cited as a prime example of the supposedly huge cultural loss entailed in a switch to evoting. How do those commentators now feel about the use to which the tallyman’s work is applied? How do we reform our electoral system to stop gombeen politicians behaving like this in future?