Fergus Cassidy

Expert ease

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute. - J G Ballard

THE language J B Ballard was talking about was almost non-existent in the Dail (parliament) last week as the issue of evoting continues to turn up the political thermometer.

The technological new world underpinning a sweeping change in how this country goes about electing its representatives, got completely sidelined giving way to the usual red-corner/blue corner boxing ring rhetoric.

And it's not the first time that technology has found the political system running to stand still. Neither will it be the last.

Technology, as applied science, has been around for hundreds of years, but the advent and growth of internet-related technologies in particular in the last two decades has added a totally new dimension and changed the possibilities of the future.

For many, many years technology was bestowed from on high by expert elites. Much of it was life-enhancing and life-saving but there were also stuff which was damaging and life-threatening.

Making a decision based on a scientific understanding of a given technology and its consequences is difficult for a political system that does not recognise the importance or significance of such understanding.

So experts must be called in to educate and advise governments, of whatever brand or hue. Many of these experts are eminently qualified and experienced in their field and no doubt do the state a great service.

But these are not the only people around anymore who can speak and understand the language of technology.

The emergence of the internet and the web in particular has opened the doors to a previously unimagineable source of information and collective knowledge.

Important though it is, electronic voting with machines is yet another in a long - and growing - line of technological stalking horses roaming the corridors of Leinster House.

Caught in the economic imperative of attracting multinational hi-tech corporations to open up shop here, Ireland built up a reputation for itself, leading to the self-styled hub of European e-commerce.

In fairness, it was successful, but there were lingering consequences. Believing it had this information age thing all figured out, the politicial establishment failed to prepare properly for change brought by technology. If anyone asked, just point them toward Ennis.

As a result, over the last few years in particular, issue after issue has found politicians bewildered with emergencies. Each one appearing to fall from a clear, blue sky. Electronic voting is the latest in a long line: child pornography, data retention and privacy, broadband, spam and camera phones.

The stand-off on evoting makes it clear once again, how governance in Ireland won't let go of the past. The inability to listen to, or even acknowledge, anyone outside of a small group of experts remains a throwback to a different era. A time when technological decisions were handed down from on high by those who knew better.

Government just doesn't 'get' technology, outside of the all-embracing and one-sided realm of commerce and trade. Huge decisions are farmed out (and ducked) to a growing band of regulators who, regardless of their endeavours, are unelected and accountable only to politicians.

Government doesn't 'get' what's happening in rural Mayo, which I the good fortune to visit and write about last week.

A decision by a group of people to form the Knockmore Community Network Society and bring broadband to their area, is a sign pointing to the future. Dana was singing All Kinds of Everything when Knockmore was finally connected to the national electricity grid.

The same applies to the work of Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting (ICTE), a campaign determinedly fronted by computer scientist Margaret McGaley. It was her university thesis which first questioned the scientific wisdom behind the proposed voting machines and lit the fuse on a technological powder keg.

Like the Knockmore project, here is a group of citizens who have assembled a breadth and range of knowledge and expertise that more than matches the governments.

What these issues point to is the potential for a new political reality, very different from yore. If any government really understands the 'knowledge society', then it has to realise that this is exactly what is starting to happen. Knowledge and expertise is distributed on a far wider scale than the hallowed halls of Dail Eireann. That's the true democratic deficit.

In any language the story of David vs Goliath is still worth remembering.