It’s time TDs abandoned the parish pump for the big issues

THE notion of reducing the number of TDs – as most recently suggested by Fine Gael leader Enda (July 25) – may have some merit, particularly if the electorate’s largely clientelist relationship with Dáil deputies, whereby votes are exchanged for real or imagined favours often relating to very personal and local matters, can be altered.

Is it really appropriate or efficient that the elite of national politicians, including ministers with hugely challenging portfolios, are seen as the first people to be called into the fray to sort out (or be seen to sort out), say, the allocation of medical cards?

Without decrying their representational constituency roles or the people who put them where they are today, should all TDs not have more important responsibilities to be dealing with than being distracted by such minutiae? Imagine a political landscape where, unencumbered by the suffocating influence of the parish pump, the men and women we send to (a now pared-down) Leinster House could find their valuable and expensive time freed up fully to embrace the roles of national parliamentarians. This would allow them to devote the due care, consideration and attention to detail one would expect of someone charged with legislating on affairs of state and channelling their talents into working the oracle to make Ireland fairer and more competitive.