A noble but unlikely idea: TDs’ terms in office

JUST like the bizarre concept of turkeys voting for Christmas, there seems little chance of TDs trooping across the floor of Dáil Éireann in support of a proposal to axe their time as parliamentary deputies to two terms, each of five years’ duration. 

Without conducting a voxpop, such a departure from the current ‘seat for life’ scenario would more than likely be welcomed by the vast majority of voters.

Yet, despite how unlikely it may seem, the junior minister at the OPW, Sean Canney, believes strongly that politicians should not serve more than two terms. In other words, as he put it, TDs do not have a “divine right” to a seat in Leinster House for 20 or 30 years. Just like the President of Ireland, he wants to see them being capped at two terms of office or 10 years in the Dáil.

One immediate result of such a change would bring about an end to Ireland’s unique brand of ‘clientelism’, a traditional practice described in a paper by the late UCC sociologist Dr Paddy O’Carroll as ‘Strokes, cute hoors, and sneaking regarders: The influence of local culture on Irish political style’. It goes something like this — ‘if you vote for me, I’ll get the medical card for you’.

It goes without saying that longevity is the essence of ‘clientelism’. Two terms of five years simply would not work under Ireland’s form of democracy where people vote for a party for life. What about a referendum?