The power of the few

national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Thursday March 29, 2007 12:31 by Johnny Finn jjfinn at eircom dot net

A commentary on the power held by the PDs in Ireland

10 years ago if the public were polled and asked ''which group of extremists are unrepresentative of the will of the majority of people yet remain as a dominant force in shaping political policies'', the public at large would have probably replied, ''The provisional I.R.A?'' If the same question was asked today, a large proportion may well answer........ ''The PDs''.

One poll published last month showed that support for the Progressive Democrats was as low as 1% of the electorate. In spite of this it's elected few continue to hold some of the highest positions of government in this land. Over the last ten years that the PDs have been forcing their Right wing, Neo-liberal agenda upon an unsupportive public, I can not recall their support in the polls ever hitting 10%.
We need to take a serious look at the way power is divided in government. Surely a party that hold only 8 seats of the 166 in the Dáil should not have a dominant role in shaping policies in the most important departments of government; Justice and health.
I remember back in 2000 when the western world scoffed at the American electoral system that allowed a presidential candidate to win the election with an overall minority of the public vote. Our system of coalitions and voting pacts has surely yielded a far more dispropotionate delegation of power.
The Irish people did not vote for dissolution of our public services and the impoverishment of an ever-increasing lower class yet if people looked around them they would see these social fall-outs with the PDs stamp on them.
If it is the will of the people that Fianna Fáil be the dominant party, then the Taoiseach's Thatcherite croneys should not be invited along for the ride.
We should get the government we vote for.

Johnny Finn
Tralee
Co. Kerry

P.S
This letter of my own composition was published in the Irish examiner(edited p.18) on the 29th march 2007.