The Coalition Government's plan for the reform of local government received an important endorsement yesterday when Ms Justice Mary Laffoy struck down a constitutional challenge to its provisions in the High Court.
Fine Gael TD, Mr Michael Ring, had challenged a ban, under which TDs and Senators would be precluded from offering themselves for election at local authority level, as discriminatory and unfair. In doing so, he rejected Fine Gael party policy and claimed to have the support of a sizeable number of backbenchers within all other Dáil parties. Mr Ring may appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Ms Justice Laffoy, in a reserved judgment, said the central plank of Mr Ring's case was that he had a constitutional right to stand for election to Mayo County Council. However, she found, there was no constitutionally guaranteed right to stand for election to a local authority.
The High Court ruling is good for both national and local politics and it will allow elected representatives concentrate their energies at the appropriate level. For far too long, we have had part-time politicians in the Dáil and Seanad, working three-day weeks, because council, health boards and other local authority meetings took up their time on Mondays and Fridays. The ban on holding a dual mandate will not immediately lead to five-day working weeks at Leinster House, with the Dáil and Seanad meeting in plenary session. Informal agreement has been reached that TDs and Senators can, in normal circumstances, continue to devote Mondays to constituency work.
Nobody likes change. And our multi-seat system of proportional representation makes competition for votes particularly fierce within and between political parties. That is why members of the Dáil and Seanad were so reluctant to give up their local authority seats. As council members, they were directly involved in making important local decisions and could sometimes identify and head off a future challenge from a political rival. Some years ago, Ministers and then Ministers of State had to be forced into giving up their local council seats so that they would concentrate to a greater extent on Government business. Now, TDs and Senators will have to pay more attention to national politics. That does not mean constituency work will be neglected and that voters will be ignored. Successful politicians will, as ever, make themselves available to voters at both national and local level. But the division of labour between both functions will become more apparent to the electorate.
This reform, along with plans for directly elected mayors and council chairmen, was first promised by Fianna Fáil nine years ago. The idea of direct elections was dropped following fierce internal opposition. And legislation to end the dual mandate was shelved in 2001 under threat from Independent TDs. At last, one of the most important changes will be put in place for the 2004 local elections. It is way past time.