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Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Politicians are untouchable
SHARON Osbourne doesn’t mince her words. “I’ve got what no British political party has – balls.”
The woman best known in recent times as a judge on The X Factor, the very successful television series, said that in a recent interview. And it immediately struck me that if she had been talking about Irish political parties, her words would have carried even greater conviction.
Thinking of the present coalition government, the title of a best-selling American novel sprang to mind – A Confederacy of Dunces. Actually, echoing the outspoken Ms Osbourne, a confederacy of wimps might be a more appropriate description. And I’m not much enamoured of what I see on the opposition benches either.
It’s hard to dispel the feeling that the national interest always comes a bad second to party advantage. One thing is certain – this generation of politicians is singularly bereft of vision. And the paucity of inspirational leadership is painful to behold.
One consequence of this is that trust in politicians and in political parties has suffered. The way business is conducted in the Houses of the Oireachtas is a contributory factor. The constitutional arrangement for good government of the country is no longer effective, if it ever was.
The theory is that the legislature (parliament) would hold the executive (government) to account. But the balance has shifted so much in favour of the executive that the government of the day can do pretty much as it pleases. Even a government with a very small majority in Dail Eireann, such as we have at present.
In a sense it could be argued that the main architect of our Constitution – Eamon de Valera – intended from the very outset that parliament should only have a very limited capacity to apply the brakes to government. Dev always favoured a strong executive, unencumbered by annoying parliamentary constraints. In Irish political culture, he himself was the epitome of the “strong” leader; he wasn’t called the “Chief” for nothing.
You could say that wider influences were also at work here. The 1930s, after all, in the context of European history, came to be known as the “age of the dictators”. It was the age of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, as well as Franco in Spain and Salazar in Portugal. These men were disdainful of opposition, and ruled as though by divine right.
It wasn’t quite like that here in Ireland in the 1930s, though an added ingredient which impacted hugely on Irish culture was the example and model of the Papacy. The 20th century saw a succession of autocratic Popes, and the tradition of authoritarian leadership in politics, best exemplified by Dev, was shaped in part by this.
One way or another, we have ended up with a system of governance in 2010 where parliament’s ability to hold the government to account is seriously weakened. The ruthless manner in which party discipline is imposed means that, when it comes to crucial votes in the Dail on legislation, the government is always going to get its way.
This is bad for democracy. And it is also conducive to arrogance on the part of those who sit around the cabinet table, an arrogance born of the knowledge that as long as they are able to command a majority in the Oireachtas, these politicians are untouchable.
The Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly is the latest to warn that the Oireachtas is now in danger of being a “charade”. There is no effective accountability, outside of what the media can provide. Reform of our system of governance has been promised – but which party has the balls to actually make it happen?
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