Provenance of our politicians proves how much we need to widen the net

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

I  was in Kilkenny over the weekend taking part in a debate on political reform as part of its excellent arts festival. My fellow participants were Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, Fianna Fáil grandee Mary O’Rourke and Sarah O’Neill, who runs the dailwatch.ie website.

Given that it was an arts festival and there were far more exciting things to see and hear, I though only a smattering of people would come in to listen to us share our wisdom and insight or lack of it. Surprise, surprise, there was a fair crowd there and a very lively and engaged debate it turned out to be.

I have droned on to the point of terminal boredom in this column about political reform, the need for it, and the lack of real appetite for it by governments who realise it leads to a diminishment of their power and influence – that’s why the loss of the Seanad, a peripheral and marginalised institution, is palatable to this Coalition because it does not attack the core.

But the most interesting question asked by a member of the audience was a simple one for which there is no simple question – how do you get into politics in the first place?

If you look at the composition of the Dail you will see that its 166 TDs are not really representative of wider society. The first obvious imbalance is the paucity of female Deputies.

There are 25 women in the Dail, which is about a seventh of the total assembly. Even though that seems to be pathetic, it is actually the highest ever female representation in parliament. The pendulum is swinging towards more equal representation of the sexes but it is happening much too slowly.

There are two other factors that are immediately obvious. The first is the high number of teachers and lawyers relative to the population as a whole and the underrepresentation of people representing the large blue collar section of society.

The second is that Ireland has a high proportion of hereditary TDs compared to other countries (though you find them in virtually all places).

With the collapse of Fianna Fáil in 2011 that number has halved but it’s still significant, 15 TDs elected to the current Dail (Brian Lenihan has since passed away but Helen McEntee, who won the Meath East by-election filled the vacancy left by the death of her father Shane).

Of the professions, teachers dominate. For example, the two Ministers in the key economic areas are teachers; one a former primary teacher (Brendan Howlin); the other a former English teacher (Michael Noonan) who was a specialist on Shakespeare.

In all there are 33 teachers, almost a fifth of all members. The next highest category is business (25) followed by farmers (14); industry and employees (12) lawyers (11) accountants (8); clerical workers (3); doctors (3); engineering science (3); publicans (3); trade union officials (3); voluntary sector (3); one architect (Ruairi Quinn) and one journalist (Shane Ross).

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.