Balanced view on mayoral pact

In relation to the new mayoral agreement in Cork City and the role of Sinn Féin, I think it is important to present a balanced perspective.

A lot has been said and written (especially about the d’Hondt system) which is inaccurate and misleading and suggests that the system is not very well understood. In my view the new Cork City Council arrangement is a very loose variation of d’Hondt, but it does include a more inclusive approach.

Ultimately we are talking about local government so there is a duty on people to form alliances and voting arrangements to guarantee a majority and a government to run the affairs of the city. Sinn Féin has come in for heavy criticism and some of it is justified. After all the party has done what it said it would never do — strike a deal for the mayoralty (in the absence, apparently, of any deal about budgets). It can also be argued that having received a strong anti-austerity vote, Sinn Féin should have supported an anti-austerity councillor in the vote for lord mayor.

On the other side of the equation, I think that Sinn Féin, as the second largest party in City Hall had a duty to discuss arrangements and strike a deal in relation to the first citizen.

If they had stayed on the outside looking in, they would have been criticised for not ‘stepping up’. In fairness to Sinn Féin, had they entered a traditional three-party pact with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael then they would have been entitled to two mayoralties during the five-year term of the City Council. Instead Sinn Féin has ceded a mayoralty to what we might call the ‘Independent Grouping’ and this is an inclusive gesture in-keeping with the spirit of d’Hondt. It is irrelevant what we call the new system in City Hall — pact, d’Hondt, grand coalition, etc.

The onus is now on all 31 councillors to work together for the betterment of the city. It is time to move forward and accept a new way of doing business in City Hall. Only over time will we discover if there is a new inclusiveness in the council chamber, but let’s at least give the councillors a chance. Significant challenges lie ahead, starting with December’s budget. We will know a lot more about Cork City Council after that.

Dr Aodh Quinlivan

Department of Government

University College Cork