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THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION missed an opportunity to deliver a more imaginative response to the problem of widespread ignorance of politics in Europe.
As I have said before, while 70% of laws originate in the EU, 90% of the drama comes from the Dáil. Voters know their TDs well and feel close to them. Some argue that our deputies are too close to voters and that TDs have insufficient regard for what should be national strategic priorities.
Having only three sprawling Euro constituencies erects barriers; barriers that could easily be addressed by having four constituencies, as was the case up to 2014. The proposal from the Electoral Commission was to add an extra seat to Midlands North-West, transferring Laois and Offaly into the new 5-seater. This was the easiest thing to do but, not by a long way, the best thing to do.
It makes no sense politically, economically or geographically.
First, the political problem. While Irish people are extremely well-disposed to membership of the EU, there is a yawning gap in knowledge or connection with their European Parliament representatives. It doesn’t help that we do our work in Brussels and Strasbourg.
2024 is the biggest election year in history, with more than 4 billion citizens heading to the polls globally. This is both a huge opportunity and a huge risk for key public policy issues, especially our climate efforts.
The European Parliament 2024 elections could spell trouble for progressive politics. The same is true of elections in the US and elsewhere.
Coupled with high abstention rates, there is now a real risk of the European Green Deal unravelling and years of effort to decarbonise our economies being undone.
Secondly, geography students will be scratching their heads to find that County Louth is still in Midlands North-West, given that the wee county markets itself as part of Ireland’s Ancient East.
Similarly, the inhabitants of Valentia Island will be surprised to know that they are sharing a constituency with the citizens of Bray while Celbridge is in the same constituency as Achill. For MEPs, it is impossible to keep in touch with constituents in this scenario.
Thirdly, and most significantly from a Dublin point of view, the constituency layout makes no attempt to contribute to economic coherence or balanced regional development. Setting sporting rivalries to one side for a moment, Dublin and surrounding counties (Meath, Wicklow, Kildare and Louth) are now experiencing many of the same issues, be that transport, policing, housing or otherwise. If a five-seater is justified anywhere, it would be this area or at least some part of it.
EU funding for transport, energy and housing projects is directed not at counties (of which there are four in Dublin alone) but at regions. The Constituencies Commission clearly exercised a very limited imaginative capacity in this regard.
Ireland does not compete well at the EU level for this type of grant funding. Neither do we perform well at anticipating the possible regional implications of new EU laws. What will the new law on fuel for Heavy Vehicles mean for companies operating in the Greater Dublin area? What will be the implications for the capital city and its surroundings on new economic governance proposals, particularly as regards state aid?
Constituencies that align with issues would be more impactful. MEPs with clear regional mandates are good for democracy.
As it stands, MEPs are more adrift from their constituents than ever. Coverage of events in the European Parliament is abysmal. RTE’s European Parliament Report goes out at ungodly hours, and I wonder if even the MEPs watch it. This is no reflection on the journalists who put the programme together but on the editorial decision on scheduling.
As a candidate in 2019, I was struck by the shrinking space for electioneering – limitations on postering (tidy towns), on canvassing (no supermarkets), on delivery of leaflets (no junk mail). There are also companies that deny employees the right to canvass or even run for election, considering it incompatible with the strategy of the business.
Foreign interference in our democratic processes is well documented. By contrast, the announcement of the Electoral Commission was an own goal.
Barry Andrews is MEP for Dublin.
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This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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Methinks the DUP will continue to find excuses not to restart the Stormont Assembly until the next election cycle because they didn’t like the result of the last ones.
@Des Leavy: Yea agree and the DUP MPs in Westminster are riding roughshod over their own MLAs in Stormont.
You can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink as the old saying goes but if he doesn’t drink he will die and I think that is what,s happening to the DUP at this stage the horse has shot himself in three of his legs so there is just one left
Can’t imagine two failed, incompetent politicians like Truss and Johnson are going to bring much to the party?
@Paul Shepherd: Truss is over to have a ganders at those “ few farmers with turnips in their trucks”!!!
@M Bowe: and Johnson probably thinks a work event so he’ll have a suitcase full of booze from Tesco….
@Paul Shepherd: I was wondering exactly the same. Two hard line Brexiteers who are along with the DUP responsible for the current mess.
Biden describes himself as Irish-American where he identifies strongly with an external Irish culture but is American nonetheless. Likewise,Varadkar and Sunak are both Indian-Irish and Indian-British on the same basis and depending on how much identify with the external Indian culture.
Neither Sunak nor Varadkar is biracial as the invalid biological notion of ‘races’ is a throwback to another era where a section of influential English society saw themselves as an Anglo-Saxon ‘race’ with an imperative to be aggressive and exterminate native cultures.
The Brexiteers are among the last of that section of their society with their total disregard for the island of Ireland along with the hapless Unionists who identify as Irish-British as they a born on the island of Ireland and identify with an external British culture.
To tackle an artificial races/racism conviction inherited from dangerous people in the 19th century is an enormous endeavour yet, almost immediately, readers can see how absurd the whole thing is. It is on this basis that people on this island both North and South move forward and influence the wider world when it comes to the invalid notion of ‘races’.
But, none can influence Donaldson and his DUP share power or engage in the process he walked out on 25 years ago.
What the DUP want is self justification and they have been consistent?
It’s a perfect example of the importance of identity.
is it a microcosm for Brexit?
The most important people here are the DUPs financial backers. The business people of NI will have the final say.
Stop paying their salaries, and that might focus their minds on getting back to work.
Varadkar sunaking up to bill for forgiveness over his paddy’s day joke gaff
@P. V. Aglue: poor syntax
The DUP don’t care about what is happening right now. They keep saying the same thing over and over again in a different words: either 100% what they want or no agreement and no power sharing.
So all those flights of important ppl back and forth are and were pointless.
@Shesh: Don’t agree because now the whole world knows what a bunch of dinosaurs the DUP really are.
As the camera pans around there’s Leo Varadkar picking his nose…
Any disccusion about bringing peace at your home punjab!
Could we just stop talking about the Political Situation in Northern Ireland for the next 100 Years, and hopefully by then the DUP might have moved an inch or so.
Our great national broadcaster can’t be bothered showing coverage of this today. Not even on its news channel. Sky news showing all the speeches live earlier. Then again, not surprised by them
Ireland england scotland all indian people this must be a first well done folks thats impressive
You know if you take the most rabid unionist and republican lock them in a container, and don’t let them out until they sort out there difference or one kills the other . Either way you would have movement.
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@EmmaH: Are we going to talk about Leo or Rishi?
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