We need politicians who can compromise

Sixty days-plus after we elected them to run the country, our 158 TDs in the Dáil can’t agree on the formation of a government. If this situation prevails, what then? Another election? What chance has that but to produce a similar indecisive outcome. An election will change little and merely serve to prolong the tedious political shenanigans we are now experiencing, from all sides.

Our parliamentary system seems to operate on the absolute requirement that the government parties win every single vote in the Dáil, otherwise the government falls. Why? What’s so wrong about debating issues and even, heaven forbid, TDs changing their minds after hearing different points of view in the debate? Under the present system “Dáil debates” are nothing more than a tedious talking shop where everything said has little or no effect on subsequent decisions or actions.

Almost 100 years after our independence, we need politicians on all sides and from all parties to do what they were elected to do rather than jockeying for electoral position. The Dáil should be more than a political platform for the next election.