More inspirational TDs please as 32nd Dáil looms on the horizon

We need more of the big thinkers and those who are ambitious for us as a society, and not afraid to float ideasm, writes Alison O’Connor 

About a year after the last general election I was chatting to a TD of long standing. We were discussing the incredible number of new deputies that had been elected in 2011.

A record number took their seats in the 31st Dáil with a new face in almost every constituency, in all 76 new deputies. “If someone came in off the street during the Order of Business and sat beside me I would be none the wiser. I don’t recognise half of them yet,” said the veteran TD.