A “SLIMMED-DOWN” Dáil with 100 TDs, half of whom should continue to be elected by proportional representation with the single transferrable vote and half through the so-called list system, would be progressive, Minister for the Environment John Gormley has said.
Mr Gormley yesterday told the committee on the Constitution, which is examining possible electoral reform measures, he would like to see a reduction in the number of deputies in the Dáil, which has 166 seats and 164 sitting TDs.
“I think we need about 100 seats in Dáil Éireann. Fifty could be directly elected and 50 by list . . . The Irish people would be quite reluctant to get rid of the current system. But perhaps with this halfway house that I suggest they would be ready to accept,” he said.
“You would get a slimmed-down Dáil. It would need to go hand in hand with changes to local government.”
Mr Gormley said a disadvantage of the list system was that “party apparatchiks” got to choose potential candidates.
A new independent electoral commission will make recommendations for changes to the electoral system for Dáil elections, including the number of deputies and their means of election, Mr Gormley said. He told the committee he was giving consideration to establishing the commission on a non-statutory basis and this would happen in the “timescale of this Government”.
The commission will make recommendations on the possibility of extending the franchise for local elections to those aged 16 or over.
Mr Gormley said he had always believed in getting more young people involved in politics and this “ought to be done first and foremost at a local level”. He said he would mandate the commission to set minimum standards for the taking and publication of political polls within the State to ensure fairness and accuracy.
The commission will also look at the issue of financing the political system and recommend revised guidelines on the declaration of donations for political purposes.
It will advise on mechanisms to increase the participation of women in political life, including the use of additional criteria for public funding to encourage more women and less well-represented groups. It will also make recommendations on the feasibility of extending the franchise for presidential elections to the Irish abroad.
Fine Gael TD Michael D’Arcy claimed Mr Gormley’s plan for a directly-elected mayor of Dublin would be a “waste of time and money”.
Mr Gormley replied that there would be a “queue around the corner” of Fine Gael candidates for the position. Mr D’Arcy’s Fine Gael colleague Denis Naughten said current constituency boundaries were an “unmitigated mess”.
Prof John Coakley of UCD’s school of politics and international relations, told the committee that when he was growing up in Mayo the transfer of Ballaghaderreen to Roscommon in 1898 was still remembered as a “deep injustice”.
