TDs devote most time to constituencies - survey

TDS WHO have previously lost a seat to a party colleague say they now devote two-thirds of their working time to their constituency, according to a survey of Oireachtas members.

The study, by the Committee on the Constitution, found that on average TDs spend more than half their time on constituency activity and less than 40 per cent on legislative work.

However, higher levels of constituency work were explained partly by what the report described as the “intra-party competitive dynamic” faced by deputies. Committee chairman Seán Ardagh said deputies rated constituency-based activities as more important than parliamentary work.

“For every hour the average TD spends on legislative work, an hour and 25 minutes is spent on constituency-based work.”

A TD who faced no “opponents from the same party” in their constituency in 2007 spent 41 per cent of their time on constituency-related work, the report said. This figure jumped to 62 per cent for TDs who had two running mates in their constituency.

The survey also found support among TDs and Senators for retaining the current electoral system has dropped from 73 per cent in 1999 to 57 per cent.

The current system is proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote in multi-seat constituencies (PR-STV). Among those who favoured change, the preferred option was a “mixed system” which would combine single-member districts with a list vote.

The report said a caveat that should be attached to all findings was that they were based solely on the self-reported working practices of TDs. Almost 100 of the 222 Oireachtas members contacted responded to the survey and 75 of those were TDs. Women TDs engaged in slightly higher levels of constituency work than their male counterparts and TDs living long distances from Dublin tended to do more work in their constituencies.

Meanwhile, TDs were asked to explain how their workload at constituency and parliament level was broken down between various activities and to rank how important they felt the activities were.

The largest single category of constituency work was identified as working on individual constituents’ cases, which accounted for more than one-fifth of the average TD’s workload.

Participating in or speaking at parliamentary party meetings was rated as the least important activity, while the most important was working on individual constituents’ cases.

However, TDs indicated they would side with their party in scenarios where the so-called “party line” clashed with the opinion of their constituency supporters or their own views.

When asked how they would vote in the event of a disagreement over policy between the voters in their constituency and the party, 86 per cent said they would vote with their party.

The report said a comparable study of Maltese MPs, who are also elected under PR-STV, showed that “national-level considerations” were more evenly balanced with constituency representation in Malta.