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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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I’m reading this on my Iphone…. says it all really
Congratulations.
@ Pierce2020, all it says really is you follow the crowd and were suckerd into buying a way over priced gadget.
It says *what* all exactly?
How do you know if someone has an iphone?? Dont worry theyll tell you.
What……Iphones have Internet now?????? WOW!!!
Ipgone is 2nd in the market and 2nd richest company. Iphone had to take down adverts as misleading saying full internet when its basic internet. Also bringing everyone to court. Nobody can eat an apple anymore for fear of being sued
Could be the beginning or end for blackberry. Think they need to stick to the business aspect and not the social. They will not compete with Apple and Samsung on that front.
here ye mike.i refuse to buy any apple product out of pure spite
I’ve never had a Blackberry, though friends and family have and they loved them. Blackberry had the business market primarily. Lack of innovation has left them languishing behind the competition, by all accounts the phone is meant to be a good device. Perhaps they should focus on capturing this business market share again, and build from there. Remember Obama famously had a Blackberry in his first presidential run. Has he switched?
Blackberry are deservedly legendary in there device security and build quality.
Having has Iphones and Samsung, I have every intention of going back to bby IF they get some decent apps.
I personally see iPhones fading into the background….i’m sure the fanboys will poop with rage for such blasphemy, but look at Nokia now!
Apple wont be able to design anything without getting sued….and its there own fault.
Android is great but the constant ads and ‘security’ worries are just too much. I don’t trust them!
Blackberry got lazy, and they paid dearly for their complacency. But if your privacy is of any value…..you have 2 option.
1) Blackberry
2) Nokia 6210
On second iPhone since last June! Wifi went on first, now internal speaker is going on this one. Had blackberry for 3 years and if I charged it up I know it’d still be good…bring on the new BB!!!
Blackberry’s eco system died in 2007 . Its the only smartphone that requires a proprietary application (blackberry enterprise server) to deliver email and management to corporate phones, and the licence for BES is damn expensive too . The phones arent that easy to use, arent that well designed and the software up till now was terrible.
Best of luck to them but im going to say rim will be gone by 2016
Stephen, your loyalty to apple is well documented. Good for you, but iOS didn’t support exchange in the beginning either.
Also, the reason for bes is that its completely secure.
2 points for you.
1) BES is free for small business
2) BB10 WILL support ms exchange
It goes on sale Jan 31st. Early releases look good. There is probably room for a little competition in the two horse smartphone race. BB are banking everything on these new devices guaranteeing app developers $10000 revenues for new apps which proved so popular they had to extend the submission deadline. As for the fruit flavored smartphone; they’ve pretty much reached saturation point esp in European markets. There is only so many time you can sell the same device with minor incremental improvement for an upwards only pricing policy (which Asian markets aren’t taking kindly to) b4 consumers decide to try an alternative for their next device.
Molome is an app for Blackberry that is just like instagram.. and it is free. Can’t wait to see this later today!
Instagram is free.
Apps that are free are rarely truly free. With instagram you’re paying with your private data. If you’re not paying for it, you’re the product!
I love how people hate iPhone users because they can’t afford 1 them selves !
Most socialists don’t like mutinationals. Go figure
pic above looks like a cross between an S3 and an iphone. looks like there could be more copyright battles ahead!
The first photos of the Blackberry 10, showing the above form, were leaked last January (2012) , five, or so months before the launch of the S3 and a good nine or ten months before the launch of the iPhone 5.
Every time apple sue someone, they get patents revoked! I think they’ll keep their heads low for a while.
Rumour has it their going to make a watch and a TV!
Watch out Rolex……..
Shockingly stubborn system , my pets doghouse has Netflix but BlackBerry tablet has not and never will , a Nokia 3210 has more apps , company reminds me of the aul lad in the pub pining for the good aul days .
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