Question: Investigating our Governmental System

[Note to the wise. I'm clueless about Irish politics. I've never been all that interested since in the past they've all seemed to act the same when they entered office. Add in the expensive tribunals that always seem to be on, I lost any interest a long time ago. But. Now the buckling economy directly affects me, and I'm not very happy with the state to things.]

Tonight, in a conversation with members of my extended family, we were talking about the corruption of local politics, and the state of the economy. I raised the point that we as a people love to complain about things, but we never seek to actually fix the problems inherent with our country and the manner in which it operates. An interesting question was raised as to who we would speak to in order to have such a thing investigated? I have no idea. Nor did they. Its not as if our politicians would be interested in changing the actual system, and even if they were I doubt that they would be capable of investigating and implementing any effective changes.

I guess an explanation of this would be required. I was sitting with my parents, and an uncle & aunt from Wexford who were talking about their experiences with the local authorities. My uncle had some interesting stories about the local authority from when he had worked for them, and my own parents could tell me of examples from our own county of politicians in office who had brokered deals which directly helped their own companies, or that of their families/friends. Apparently these levels of corruption are commonly known, and ignored as being part of the way things just are. It has always been that way, so it'll continue to be that way in the future.

As for an investigation of our governmental process, I've heard all my life about inefficiency in all departments of our government. Regardless of what party holds office, they continue to mismanage the funds of the country. Even when Ireland had more money than we knew what to do with, there were still massive mistakes and bad decisions made. So i feel that an investigation of how our government is structured, how it operates, and the manner in which their decisions are monitored should be investigated, and improved upon.

Are we even able to change the way our government operates? Are we able to investigate politicians on both a local and ministerial level? Anyone know how such a thing would be started?

I figured I'd start with boards.ie before i started writing letters to the newspapers.

Nobody? Hmm.... Ok.

manicmonoliths

You raise an interesting point. What can we do about the level of corruption and mismanagement of funds in our government? The obvious answer would be to vote out the current government and replace them with better, but that doesn't seem to work as you mentioned.

You're right when you say Ireland is a nation of moaners, never trying to fix things. I think a big part of the problem is the mentality Irish people have when it comes to politics. I think the wrong people run for public office. We need to get better people in to roles that matter. It's tough though as to get elected in this country you pretty much need to be a member of FF or FG.

No independant TD is going to save the nation either, so what you really need is a Dáil majority who want to change the way this country is run.

Reading that back it does sound almost impossible to achieve. I don't expect FF or FG to suddenly change it's ideals and fill it's ranks with honest hard working people.

The country needs a new political party. One that has ideals not dating back to the Civil-war era. This party will face huge difficulties in getting itself legitimised and elected. It will need strong competent leaders, good communicators, party members who aren't seen as power hungry. It'll need to get across the idea that voting for them will make a difference and that it wont be a wasted vote to vote for change. At the same time the party will have to avoid appearing smug and holier than thou, the Irish people have a begrudery complex where they put down people who seek to make waves or do well for themselves and others.

This party will need a considerable amount of funding, to run an effective nationwide campaign.

If this party achieves a Dáil majority, it can go about implementing changes in the government structure, redrafting the constitution or whatever else you have in mind.

...Well changing the country was never going to be easy

Of course we could revolt, overthrow the current government and implement a new system of government. Funnily enough of the two, I think this is more likely to happen. In all seriousness, I think we are getting closer and closer to some kind of (dare I say it) Rising every day now, it's quite worrying actually.
I mean for how long will people stand by and let things deteriorate? If the government debt keeps spiralling out of control, unemployment keeps soaring while government raises taxes, cuts childcare and education funding, will the Irish people continue to stand by and do nothing. I sometimes worry about the possibility of wide spread anarchy to be honest.

I seriously doubt any sort of uprising would occur. Another political party would be sworn in who would blame the problems on the previous party, and say how can we expect them to fix everything... and nothing will change... Unless the EU does it for us, and fixes our economy... But we'll still have the same inefficient political system we've always had, and people will continue to moan with nothing happening.

I'm not sure another political party is what is required though. I'm not even sure a political party could get in into power without sacrificing the very reason it was formed, and just become the same as all the others.. I figure any political group would need to make promises to business, and other politicians to gain support for anything to pass. And I don't see the existing political groups wanting to change their lovely setup.

But I was wondering was there an organisation that would deal with constitutional reform, since wouldn't the manner that the government operates come under the guidance of the constitution?

MANY thanks for the response btw. It'll help me to get my idea's clarified, before i start tackling more formal/official avenues of query.

manicmonoliths

Deleted User wrote: »

I seriously doubt any sort of uprising would occur. Another political party would be sworn in who would blame the problems on the previous party, and say how can we expect them to fix everything... and nothing will change... Unless the EU does it for us, and fixes our economy... But we'll still have the same inefficient political system we've always had, and people will continue to moan with nothing happening.

I'm not sure another political party is what is required though. I'm not even sure a political party could get in into power without sacrificing the very reason it was formed, and just become the same as all the others.. I figure any political group would need to make promises to business, and other politicians to gain support for anything to pass. And I don't see the existing political groups wanting to change their lovely setup.

But I was wondering was there an organisation that would deal with constitutional reform, since wouldn't the manner that the government operates come under the guidance of the constitution?

MANY thanks for the response btw. It'll help me to get my idea's clarified, before i start tackling more formal/official avenues of query.

Well I'm no expert but I'd imagine constitutional reform is the responsibility of the electorate. Every change to the constitution must be ratified by a referendum and these changes are proposed by the Dáil. Sorry if that's complete garbage, that's just how I assume things work.

If there's some kind of organisation that deals with constitution reform, I'd imagine it's members are appointed rather than elected, which in a sense makes it useless. If Brian Cowen doesn't want to change the constitution then he'd simply have to appoint similar minded people to this organisation.

I've tried to kind of stay away from this phrase but what we really need is regime change. The current governments isn't working and I honestly can't see the current problems going away in the next 5 years with any members of the current Dáil at the helm. Surely there must be someone in this country who is capable of fixing our problems. The only problem will be in order for this person to make a difference he'll need to be in a leading position in either FF or FG.