OPINION:There are too many politicians in the Oireachtas. Fine Gael plans to cut those numbers and bring in radical changes in the way Ireland governs itself, writes ENDA KENNY

THE US writer Max de Pree said that the first responsibility of leadership is to define reality. Well, hundreds of thousand of ordinary Irish workers and families have had reality defined pretty starkly for them over the last 18 months or so. Massive job losses, the depressing re-emergence of emigration, increased taxes and depleted services have all hit home the new reality facing all our people.

Through all of this a government, whose failures are many and manifest, has struggled and failed to chart a credible course out of the crisis we now face. We can, and do, blame reckless bankers, greedy developers and a cheer-leading government for getting us in to the mess we are now in, but wait in vain for that same government to chart a way out of the mess they helped create.

While we all wait in vain for that unlikely event to happen, we are subjected to ever-more blunt tax increases and spending cuts while the core system of governance, in its widest sense, remains unreformed and underperforming. That can and must change.

I believe that radical change is needed in our society, across a range of sectors, if we are to emerge from our current depression. Our economy, our public services and the very way we govern ourselves all have to change. To have any credibility as a political system to drive that type of radical change, I am absolutely convinced that the change we need must begin within the political system itself.

As political leaders, if we seek to bring change and have change accepted, we must embody that change ourselves.

That is why, last Saturday night, I told 1,300 Fine Gael elected representatives, members and supporters that in government I would deliver the most fundamental changes in our political system in over 70 years. I committed my party to put a proposition to the public, via a referendum, to abolish Seanad Éireann and to reduce the number of TDs in Dáil Éireann by at least 20.

This type of change would save the taxpayer in the region of €150 million over the course of a Dáil term. While this type of saving is not trivial or inconsequential when one considers the swingeing cuts facing ordinary families, the longer-term benefits of this proposal are significantly greater.

As a party we have, and will continue to, bring forward radical proposals to change our country for the better. As we bring those proposals forward, I want people to understand that we are serious about change. We are serious about taking on vested interests. And we are serious about slaying a few sacred cows. Our commitment to change our system of governance is our first down-payment on a deal with you, the public, to transform our country.

And when I say transform, I use the word advisedly.

First off is the absolute requirement to get our country back to work. Fine Gael has a plan to re-imagine our economy for the 21st century based on making massive new investment in our green energy sector, broadband facilities and clean water supply.

The plan, called NewEra, involves an €11 billion stimulus package geared towards major new infrastructure in these vital areas. This plan will be financed by new money funded from the Pension Reserve Fund, borrowings from the European Investment Bank and from the proceeds in the years ahead of the sale of some non-essential State companies.

The beauty and simplicity of the Fine Gael plan is that, in realising our vision of the future, we can get 100,000 people back to work in the short term.

One issue, probably more than any other, describes the abject failure of the Government over the last 12 years: health. Has any government ever spent so much money on an issue with so little return?

The Health Service Executive (HSE), co-location, two-tier health system approach of the current government has failed. Period. It has simply not delivered the services our people deserve. There is, however, a viable alternative on offer from Fine Gael.

Our FairCare proposal for a single-tiered health service with universal health insurance coverage is based on the successful Dutch health system. I took the opportunity on Monday to visit Holland and see with my own two eyes a properly functioning health system. No trolleys, patients seen within 10 minutes, no MRSA problem, no waiting lists – and all this on a budget that spends less per capita on health than we do.

It is a complete change of direction for Ireland. The HSE as we know it would no longer exist and patients would get treated based on medical need, rather than personal income. It has worked for 17 million Dutch people and, with the right attitude here, it can work for four million Irish people.

And it’s those same four million Irish people that will benefit from a political system that is changed utterly from what we have grown used to. Before making my speech on Saturday night, I asked my colleagues to look at other countries and compared how their parliaments work.

The blunt truth is that our Dáil is too big and we do not need a Second House. New Zealand, with the same population as us, abolished its Second House and has only 120 parliamentarians. And its system works. We have 226 and our system doesn’t.

I strongly believe that we can, and should, reduce the total number of Oireachtas members by 35 per cent.

We can have a streamlined, more responsive and more transparent political system, and in power I will make sure that it happens. Ministers answering questions and being held to account, committees with the power to do the work of tribunals, office holders not hiding behind quangos they’ve set up and a 50 per cent increase in the sitting days.

All of this can and will happen.

The only true valid test of leadership is the ability to lead and to lead vigorously. A personal hero of mine, John Kennedy, said that in 1960. The words still ring true today. The test is still valid, my determination to pass that test still complete.

Dramatic interventions are needed to drive the radical change we need to see in our country. Our political system is first in line. Other areas will necessarily have to follow.

Enda Kenny is leader of Fine Gael