Those familiar with my general blog postings will recall a recent little verse where I attempted to poke fun at those, largely academics and media pundits, who seem to be adamant about running for election to the new Dail (Irish Parliament) as a means of changing our government processes for the good of the populace in Ireland. While I don’t wish to pour cold water, as it were, on their obviously genuinely heartfelt zeal for change, I would like to once again question the real value of such an exercise. My own view is that current Dail procedures do not cater for or indeed in any way facilitate genuine democratic contributions from non government parties or groupings at all. In fact, they don’t really encourage much genuine contributions from even those elected within the government party itself. Thus, small groupings, even of committed and well educated ideologues of economic academia, are unlikely to have any real say in government policy unless like previous crews of motley independents they happen to hold the ‘balance of power’ in the Dail. Thus I feel that the declared ambition for forging real change within the current or even promised Dail structures is at best naive and probably total folly.
Perhaps a more viable approach would be to reform rather than replace the ‘upper’ house not as a discredited ‘Seanad’ for banal exchanges lacking any obvious positive value in composition of or contribution from it’s members. Rather I feel that it should be replaced by perhaps four ‘Forum’ structures where the general public would elect a small group of say 7 to 10 people to sit on committees to forge policies and clear recommendations in the areas of Physical Environment, Economics, Arts/Culture and Social Policy. In the spirit of the current Dail committees such as the one on Financial Accountability, these Forum groups could publish key policies and clear objectives for reform of our society in the face of the current economic recession. Thus, instead of simply engaging as a loose alliance of pressure groupings which can easily be marginalised in the Dail, these elected Forum members could actually publish real policy documents and contribute clears objectives for change. Furthermore, the public at large could readily assess whether the government was prepared to act upon these recommendations within the Dail itself.
There is no doubt that our country has reached a sorry state of crisis and it is easy to detect an almost tangible sense of despair throughout Ireland. However, rather than simply engage with a discredited process and within the current restrictive government structures, I feel that a more refined and viable solution for channelling this reform commitment is necessary. In this respect, mass rallies of the populace or indeed pressure groups within the Dail, have limited opportunity for developing and refining real initiatives for change. What is need is a means of shedding more light rather than heat on alternative options and my hope is that this small blog discourse will in some small way contribute positively to this process.
In ending I have added a photo of the Girolamo Savonarola statue from Ferrara, Italy to this blog as I feel that the life and indeed temporary popularity of this 15th century Dominican friar may well have a parallel to some reforming zealots of our own age. Let us not forget therefore that those who do not learn from history are likely to repeat it.
Perhaps a more viable approach would be to reform rather than replace the ‘upper’ house not as a discredited ‘Seanad’ for banal exchanges lacking any obvious positive value in composition of or contribution from it’s members. Rather I feel that it should be replaced by perhaps four ‘Forum’ structures where the general public would elect a small group of say 7 to 10 people to sit on committees to forge policies and clear recommendations in the areas of Physical Environment, Economics, Arts/Culture and Social Policy. In the spirit of the current Dail committees such as the one on Financial Accountability, these Forum groups could publish key policies and clear objectives for reform of our society in the face of the current economic recession. Thus, instead of simply engaging as a loose alliance of pressure groupings which can easily be marginalised in the Dail, these elected Forum members could actually publish real policy documents and contribute clears objectives for change. Furthermore, the public at large could readily assess whether the government was prepared to act upon these recommendations within the Dail itself.
There is no doubt that our country has reached a sorry state of crisis and it is easy to detect an almost tangible sense of despair throughout Ireland. However, rather than simply engage with a discredited process and within the current restrictive government structures, I feel that a more refined and viable solution for channelling this reform commitment is necessary. In this respect, mass rallies of the populace or indeed pressure groups within the Dail, have limited opportunity for developing and refining real initiatives for change. What is need is a means of shedding more light rather than heat on alternative options and my hope is that this small blog discourse will in some small way contribute positively to this process.
In ending I have added a photo of the Girolamo Savonarola statue from Ferrara, Italy to this blog as I feel that the life and indeed temporary popularity of this 15th century Dominican friar may well have a parallel to some reforming zealots of our own age. Let us not forget therefore that those who do not learn from history are likely to repeat it.
