Greens call for code of conduct after political life

[jayblue]

Not unsure how I feel about this is this a good thing or a bad thing. Should this only to all TD's and Senators, or should it apply to those who only serve as ministers, as for example if this came into law and Mary Hanafin lost her seat, then she would not be able to be a teacher for a year. IF people decide to go into the public life, then they should not be penalised from earninga living if and when they retire from political life, it is different for the civil service.

[wexfordman]

Interesting example the teacher one. Effectively if this was the case, would it not just mean that there would be no point in the sweet deal where teacher td's can have their old post held for them until they finish up in the dail/retire/fail to get re-elected.

Wexfordman

[returning officer]

Why would anybody go into politics?

Press instrusion.
Low pay (in comparsion to amount to productive and non-productive work required 100hours per week plus)
Inability to work in other fields.
The high probability of losing your job (30-40 TDs don't come back each election).
Being owned by the public.
Judged and critisised (some times very personally) all the time.
Effect on family life.

And now it is proposed that you are limited in your career after the ingrates have rejected you.

There will be more Bamjee's and Jim Glennons leaving the scene.

[Edo]

is it just me - or has anybody else noticed that the Greens have recently cornered the market in trying to slam barn doors shut after the horses have bolted?

Tara
Ringsend incerator
This
whats next?

[Limerick Lad]

Not unsure how I feel about this is this a good thing or a bad thing. Should this only to all TD's and Senators, or should it apply to those who only serve as ministers, as for example if this came into law and Mary Hanafin lost her seat, then she would not be able to be a teacher for a year. IF people decide to go into the public life, then they should not be penalised from earninga living if and when they retire from political life, it is different for the civil service.

When TDs lose their seats they're not exactly left without remuneration, having to sign on like many who otherwise lose their jobs. I'm not sure of the exact details but I think a proportion of their salary is payable to them for up to two years after they lose their seats, 75 per cent for the first six months, 50 per cent for the next 12 months and 25 per cent for the final six months

[wexfordman]

Does it not depend on how long they have served, and is it also dependent on the position the td held (eg ministererial etc).

In any case, there is some justification for a continued payment, along the lines of redundancy I suppose, taking what would be considered an average redundancy payment of 6 weeks + 2 or 8 weeks plus 2 for every years , although the figures limerick lad suggest are much more generous by the looks of it.

[floatingvote]

Let's see where they stand on standards in public life, we will hopefully get an insight into that in about 2 weeks time.

[wexfordman]

In any case, I think saying the greens specificaly have raised it after the horse has bolted is puching it a bit. TD's get kicked out every election, and many of them are very employable afterwards, and this has been the case for decades, and no party to my mind has raised it before, so if there is a horse that has bolted, they all forgot to close the barn door.
Must trot....

[jayblue]

like the pds before are the greens on their first time in government going to be the morale watcdogs of the FF led government, will they be the german shepherds or the sleeping poodles, time will tell. My take is that they will jump up and down, stamp their feet and then go to bed like good little children.

[baldur0300]

It would be illegal (and probably unconstitutional) for a former TD to be generally banned from employment for any length of time however it is indeed possible to have a restrictive convenant that prevent the TD from taking up specific types of employment following the end of their term of office.

I think that there should be some sort of block on ministers or ministers of state taking up jobs related to briefs that have just exited. Apart from anything else it looks bad and further worsens the name of politicans when it happens. It is possible to do so under the current legal scheme and I think it should be introduced after this particular episode.