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REARVIEW:A colleague last week addressed the issue of politicians' travel expenses and the burden they are on the taxpayer. Perhaps carpooling is the answer? Four country TDs up in Dublin for the price of one? Bargain.

It’s a nice idea in theory, but one that’s doomed to fail in practice. We’ve all seen them bickering away at each other on Oireachtas Report like sugar-addled brats. And that’s in public. Imagine what they’d be like in private, hemmed into the confines of a car. Imagine the mess when a bevy of Fine Gael backbenchers battle it out over Bruton and Kenny. They’d be tearing strips off each other all the way to the Dáil.

Still, just because the great and the good can’t be trusted to get along, for the sake of the country, it doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t. It’s time to lead the leaders.

The benefits of carpooling are many, not least the savings to be made by sharing fuel costs and parking charges. On a larger scale, it results in less congestion, which benefits road users and the economy at large, as well as a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions which is good for us all.

If you can’t find someone to pool with, there are a range of websites designed to match people with routes. Sadly, while they may be entirely trustworthy, the perception out there is that you never know who to trust on the internet and, as a result, the take-up is not what it could be.

This is where the Government comes in. It needs to invest in a carpooling website where all participants are thoroughly vetted. This would inspire confidence in users that the person they have agreed to share a lift with isn’t a sex offender, an axe murderer or, indeed, a TD.

It should also allow cars carrying three or more people to use bus lanes. Obviously, for this to succeed, enforcement must be iron-fisted and merciless. Some hope of that happening.