I am standing in this election to propose a new way for the citizens of this country to exercise their franchise, to empower themselves. The Constitution only says we should send representatives from he Constituencies not political party representatives.
- The political parties are just private member clubs of vested interests, of various colours.
- No political party will empower citizens. We must do it ourselves.
- There are no independent candidates. We either accept the mandate of our fellow citizens or not.
- The one reform we need is for the people to choose representatives that will always vote according to a specific mandate on every issue.
- The People’s Convention (CPPC) is an organisation of all electors in the Constituency, through which we can empower ourselves, before, during and after elections.
Brendan (60) is an Architect living in Lucan. He is married with four children. His wife, Rani, is a Montessori teacher. He studied at DIT (Bolton Street).
He was a prominent student leader in the late 70’s and early 80’s. He united the students to oppose the abuse of their union by political parties of all colours and individuals who were using it as a platform for the promotion of their own narrow agendas and careers.
Brendan is a founder of CPPC, he will:
- Work to build the constituency Convention to empower the voters, to make them the decision makers.
- Seek a mandate, as decided only by the citizens of Dublin West, on each issue that will come before the Dáil.
We have a country with an abundance of natural resources, a good climate and a small well-educated population. There is no reason why the needs and aspirations of all our citizens cannot be met.
For 90 years the citizens of Ireland have been deprived of the right to direct the affairs of their own State.
- We are ruled over by a system of collaborating political parties of vested interests, both foreign and native.
- The Constitution says we should elect TDs to “represent constituencies”, it doesn’t mention parties at all. But the Dáil has been transformed into a system for the election of political party representatives – their ‘whip’ disenfranchises citizens!
- The political parties first frustrated and then removed the Constitutional right of the citizens to initiate policy and to call referendums.
It is about Our Entitlement — Our Empowerment – Only the People Themselves can Change their Situation
Under this system of rule by political parties we are subjected to misleading election promises, betrayal in international negotiations, and the diversion of our national resources and wealth into the pockets of vested interests.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens are facing the most severe depravations in the interests of rescuing bankers and financial gamblers from the results of their own greed—and worse is promised!
The political parties, groups, alliances and “independents” are showering us with proposals for reforms, ‘left’ alliances, alliances of ‘independents’ and so on. But none is putting forward a means by which the citizens of this country can take control of their own State. It is our State!
The electorate can and must empower themselves by only choosing representatives who will carry the mandate of the constituents to the Dáil on all matters including the budget. We must choose representatives who undertake to resign if their constituents vote to remove them.
This is the one reform which makes all others possible.
We need a system of constituency People’s Conventions of all electors to ensure that the people select their own candidates, vote for them, mandate them, supervise them and through that supervision we can ensure that the State delivers the needs and meets the aspirations of all its people.
