Madam, – Tim Pat Coogan (“Little sign of crisis among our nation’s precious politicians”, Opinion, May 5th) writes of the need for change in the way the Oireachtas conducts its business and, in particular, suggests that politicians – or as he calls our elected members of parliament, “these people” – should lead by example and cut their pay and expenses.
We are a considerable distance ahead of him. In recent months members’ expenses have been cut, mileage rates reduced and allowances to chairmen of Oireachtas committees halved. Allowances paid to vice-chairmen, convenors to committees and chairmen of sub-committees and others have been abolished.
Members of the Oireachtas have had real reductions in their incomes, including the pension levy, and the level of support they receive towards the substantial costs involved in administering their constituency duties effectively. Incidentally, even before these cuts, the financial support provided for constituency duties did not cover the full cost of doing the job properly.
Mr Coogan paints a picture of “these people” with their “Mugabe-like trappings” fiddling while the country burns. In fact, the political system has been changing rapidly to show example during this unprecedented economic challenge.
Mr Coogan also argues we should cut our number of TDs. He says that our population does not require 166 TDs, and that applying the same proportions, the UK could have 2,500 TDs. For future hyperbolic purposes he may be interested to know that if we took India as an example, we would end up with just two TDs.
Our number of TDs is not based on such foreign comparisons, but on a judgment as to how many deputies we need to represent the population adequately. Our system has ensured that constituents have ready access to their elected representatives. For the politician there is no hiding place.
Our system of democracy is rooted in grassroots politics. By all means debate the size of our parliament, but argument should be based on the needs of Irish political culture. Not on what they do in Westminster or New Delhi.
Mr Coogan also suggests we don’t take our role as legislators very seriously. Since the 2007 general election the Dáil and Seanad have passed 47 pieces of legislation. This is a time-consuming, painstaking and intricate task which involves in-depth scrutiny by an Oireachtas committee together with a general debate in both the Dáil and Seanad chambers. The importance of passing good legislation goes without saying and the record of the Oireachtas in this area remains high. The fact that this legislative activity is not always well reported (although your newspaper does a very good job in this regard) is not something for which “these people” can be blamed.
As for the 95 Dáil sitting days to which Mr Coogan refers, for completeness he could have added the 580 committee meetings that were held last year, at which 1,500 members of society gave evidence as an integral part of the parliamentary system. Mr Coogan should come along some day for a look.
Statistics show that our sitting hours stand up well internationally.
And no article such as Mr Coogan’s would be complete without the usual kick at the Seanad. The majority of members are elected to Seanad Éireann from five panels – culture and education; agriculture; labour; industry and commerce; and administrative, together with six members who are elected by graduates of the NUI and Trinity colleges. To seek election to the Seanad on one of the aforementioned panels you must prove to the clerk of the Seanad that you have knowledge and practical experience in one of these areas.
This ensures that members elected to the Seanad have an expertise which provides the basis for the in-depth scrutiny and teasing out of legislation as it goes through the house. A second house also ensures that there is much-needed check on government powers and provides enhanced oversight of legislation.
None of the above is to say that our political system cannot change further to meet the fresh tests and trials of today. It should and it must, but the rapid pace of change deserves more serious comment in your newspaper than the usual tabloid guff dished up on May 5th.
And “these people” do a difficult and demanding job and deserve a little bit of respect. – Yours, etc,