David McWilliams: Ireland needs a dose of ‘Protestant pragmatism’, where power is delegated to the people

French tightrope walker Nathan Paulin walks 50m over Lake Geneva during celebrations for Swiss National Day on August 1st, 2022. Photograph: Gabriel Monnet/ AFPd Getty Images

The most fascinating exhibit was a tiny 17th-century Bible, so small it could be hidden in the trussed-up hair of Huguenot women. Dissenters risked torture and death if the book were to be discovered. The core of the Swiss-French “reform” was the Bible and the individual’s direct relationship with God via the scripture, unmediated by the church, priests or the Vatican hierarchy.

The Confederation, or national parliament, handles issues of national importance and scale, such as defence, foreign policy, customs and monetary policy as well as nationwide legislation. Each of the country’s 26 cantons determine regional budgets, taxes and healthcare. Lower down, the 2,131 communes determine local rates of taxation, planning regulations, and schools and welfare provisions.

It is quite clear that the system Varadkar has sat atop is not working for many of the people in the country. We can’t build hospitals on time, we can’t build metros on budget, we can’t build enough homes in the right places at the right price for the right people.

It’s a big ask, and it should not be surprising that the system doesn’t deliver. According to Einstein, a Swiss citizen, the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we stick to this political system despite the evidence of it not working, things will get worse.

If the 800,000 unionists who live on this island were to govern themselves in a new country, raise taxes from their own brethren and run their own local councils, while sending delegates to a national parliament for discussing foreign policy, then they would be more autonomous within the new Ireland.

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