Absentee politicians undermine the system

IT’S hard to believe that politicians are taking politics seriously given the amount of time they are taking off from the Oireachtas.

If this continues, we will have a meaningless political system of benefit only to public representatives.

Oireachtas holidays are orchestrated to obstruct real debate. This gives the Government plenty of breathing space to consult with their spindoctors in order to give a cleverly designed and belated response to serious questions.

Many excuses are put forward, such as committee and constituency work for absenteeism. However, one also notices absenteeism in these areas. There are numerous committees where vacant seats can be seen facing people who need to answer more than one or two questions.

The political system is losing all relevance to citizens. It’s time to consider the value of elections when the result is just highly paid soft jobs for absentees.

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Ringaskiddy

Co Cork