‘Political children’ were democratically elected

IN his letter (May 12), Brendan Casserly startled me when he said Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan “inherited” their Dáil seats from their fathers.

I thought they were elected according to the democratic process by the voters of their respective constituencies.

Tell me, did they have to wait until the parental wills were probated before they walked up Kildare Street?

Did anyone challenge their curious method of election in the High Court?

I also assumed that belonging to a political family made you neither eligible nor ineligible to be a TD, that you dived in and took your chance.

Or could it be that Mr Casserly wants to glorify the democratic process when it suits him and rubbish it when it doesn’t?

Sheila Griffin

Blennerville

Tralee

Co Kerry