[Padraig]

One fundamental problem we have in Ireland is the way in which we elect our Dáil (parliament).

There's a 4 minute section in this video (43m45s onwards ) http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1090239 which explains better than I can, but here goes:

In short: 1. There are multiple seats (often with a few candidates running from the same party) per constituency. 2. It doesn't take many votes to get elected (Any more than 8,000 votes got you elected in my constituency of 86,000 people).

Politicians don't compete on the differences between their parties because they're also competing against another locally running party member. Instead, they wage very local personality based campaigns. Since they only need a few thousand votes, they can and do call door-to-door to chat with everyone they can. Pothole need filling? Let your local candidates know and by god it'll be fixed immediately.

This means that the people who end up making important decisions on whether or not to take on 100s of billions of euros worth of debt are the people who came across best on a few thousand house calls.

[riffraff]

this seem similar to the system we had in italy up to some years ago. It was changed so that the party decides who is running, and people cannot vote on the person.

The result is, of course, that people who would be ineligible because of obvious incapacity (or any other reason) still get elected when people vote for the color instead of the person, and the parliament is full of lackeys who don't dare to disagree with the leaders for fear of not being put on the safe list the next time around.

Be careful when you wish for a better system, you may end up with a worse one :)

[fdghjkh]

There's a great book written by a civil servant in Ireland's foreign ministry in the 80s.

He said he had two maps on his wall, one of the eastern bloc enemy and a bigger one of his minister's constituency - a crisis (eg a pothole) in the constituency was the priority.

[Padraig]

Ha! That doesn't surprise me at all. What's the book called?

There is an appetite to reform this stuff now, but it's hard to imagine the winners of the game when played by those rules deciding to change it dramatically.

[vdm]

'An Accidental Diplomat'? http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1902602390

[fdghjkh]

Don't remember - got stuck at Dublin airport once and it was the only book not about whiskey, your Irish ancestors or pictures of green fields