What should a TD be doing??

[barrym]

As the starter of this thread I feel obliged to keep it going.... [ok, don't bother to read on if you think the discussion is not worthwhile]

On balance the posts seem to back the idea that 'working' TDs (sometimes referred to as gombeens, and/or 'fixers' and/or the usual suspects...) are, or should be, a threatened species. OTOH, there are those who feel that funeral going et al is all important.

My original thoughts in writing the starter here was that maybe it is time we moved on, after all we are, according to those same people - the members of our Dail - a modern, open, sharp, rich, fantastic, etc., crowd of voters - oops, I mean people. We have improved our status since 1921, but we haven't improved the quality of our elected representantives to the same extent. Why? because the staus quo is easier and, despite all the arguments to the contrary here, fixing and fiddling is easier than actually managing a country in the 21st century.

Is it any wonder that so many people are sceptical about politics and politicians.

Just in case you think I am an city based armchair pundit I live in deepest rural Ireland most of the time. My son lives in a similar area and has had recent exposure to local pols through trying to get a childrens playground up and running. He is apalled at the crap - like the local co councillor insisting he deliver the planning application ' cos I know the lads' etc., etc., and the promises of 'millens' for the funding.....

In rural Ireland, from my experience, the people generally have moved on, the pols haven't. None of my local TDs read/reply to email, their 'office' answers, I suspect they cannot use email, as for web sites......I have tried to interest one of them, a solicitor, in issues such as data protection, to no avail.....OK, I know they have plenty of attendees at their clinics (BTW a member of AA once asked me how they can meet their TD since he holds his clinics in a pub) - the attendees are, lets face it, looking for a fix.... not for a right.....There is also the rub of the relic thing, 'I know the local TD.....'

Can we move on? I'm not at all sure. As long as TDs and CoCos make themselves believe that they are providing the service needed to get elected then we are stuck with what we've got.. Anyway, any attempt to change it will be resisted in the turkeys for christmas mould....

[sparkey321]

All this talk of "medical cards", "funerals" and the like is simply a dismissal of constituency work. This is a fundamental part of a TD's job and is incredibly important. Dismissing it is rather disrespectful of the many people who put in so much work at the ground level.

the attendance of funerals and wakes is very important, it must be shown by the TD that he knows where he came from and who elected him.this is not a civil service job where you answer to a supervisor ,this is a job where a TD must be seen to sympathise with the voters at a sad time. any TD who doesn't attend funerals won't be a TD for long

they are expected to be seen at either the wake or the funeral, its custom in this country to show respect for the departed, non attendance would be seen as an insult to the family of the deceased. they are supposed to be the voice of the people they must show solidarity with the people at sad times

That's why we get the fools we get.

Willie O Dea gets record votes because he goes to funerals, "gets" medical cards etc despite the fact that he has never done a single productive thing for his constituency.

As long as people expect their TD's to do this crap instead of doing what they are supposed to be doing and voting accordingly we will continue to get muppets.

[barrym]

Yeah! and who exactly fixed this -

"Fianna Fáil Mayo TD Beverley Flynn said a special telephone number in the central office had been given to Oireachtas members to make queries about constituents’ medical cards."

from todays IT. It isn't just the fools we get it is the fools who look after them in the CS/HSE/wherever....again, wtf are they doing, providing a special number? Of course, they are ensuring that they will be on the inside track with TDs..... christ, what a ballsup.

But, to be fair, if the IT report is true, then some sort of fixing is necessary, the centralised over 70s card stuff is a mess...., shouldn't TDs be seeing to it that a proper service is provided, as they appear to be doing through the Dail committee??
I'm not too sure that a committee report will make any difference. Overall, the quality of what the public sector provides as 'service' is poor, not necessarily due to the personnel per se, but unlikely to be improved as long as TDs can be seen to fix things.

[FrankSpeaks]

All this talk of "medical cards", "funerals" and the like is simply a dismissal of constituency work. This is a fundamental part of a TD's job and is incredibly important. Dismissing it is rather disrespectful of the many people who put in so much work at the ground level.

George Lee's problem was that he did not representing Dublin South to be the privilege that it is. Instead he felt that the Dáil was privileged to have him as a member, he seemed to think that constituency work was beneath him (he didn't even bother with a website ffs, nearly all councillors go to the bother of putting one up) as opposed to being the majority of a TD's workload. The c.100k salary could hardly be justified by the few days a year that the Dáil actually sits, especially when you discount the many of those days spent on local issues anyway. The reality is that most time has to be spent on the nitty gritty, less glamorous stuff at a constituency level.

This is one of the most moronic posts that I have ever read on P.ie and unfortunately it seems to be shared by a majority of the electorate and this is the main reason why the country is in the state that it is in.