TDs in festive mood as country faces its worst crisis for generations

NOBODY does more to undermine the authority of the Dáil than the politicians employed there.

How can we take seriously a publicly elected body that votes to take a 39-day holiday for itself over the Christmas period? The 166 TDs finished up at 5pm last evening and they won’t be back in the state’s primary debating chamber until January 27 (although they’ll be attending a special Mansion House anniversary for a few hours the week before). Lucky them. No other parliamentary democracy in the western world would tolerate such outrageous behaviour by its elected politicians.

Not France, where parliamentarians are allowed 13 days off, which seems about right to me. It would seem reasonable to finish work next Tuesday and then be back in the Dáil on Monday, January 5.

Spain allows its members of parliament a 15-day break and Norway gets 18. Other countries are far more generous: Sweden gives 24 days and the Netherlands 25. Our neighbours in Britain get a very generous 25 days and in Germany and the US the 30-day allowance seems far too long.

But none of that comes close to the length of time our Government has decided to close the Dáil. And this is a time of crisis.

Now I know the Government will continue to work over this period. In fact, I suspect the important members of cabinet will get no more than a couple of days’ respite from the crisis they are trying to handle — if even that. They will be buried in meetings with officials and will use the time to try to gain support from the social partners for the huge and hated reductions to public expenditure that are going to be required.

I’m sure Brian Cowen, Brian Lenihan and Mary Coughlan in particular will be thrilled to miss the three-times-a-week Dáil grilling from opposition leaders eager to taunt with their carefully crafted soundbites designed to end up on the nation’s airwaves and on the front pages of the newspapers.

They probably believe that having to listen to such opportunism — and valid criticism from the likes of the incisive and wounding Eamon Gilmore — is not necessarily a useful spending of their valuable time. Curbing the desire to lash back — because it appears petulant on that evening’s TV news — is a difficult task too. Cowen and Coughlan in particular have problems biting their tongues. That is less of a problem if they are not baited in public. The Government has had its responses to criticism of the extended break well rehearsed. The committees — on which all parties are represented — will be busy during January. These will conduct apparently important research and will continue to bring outsiders in for interrogation on important issues of public interest.

Sometimes this work is valid and useful, other times it is mere showmanship, as some of the stunts pulled at the recent Oireachtas committee on Ireland’s future in Europe showed. But the committees do not call the Government to account — and they meet at best once a week.

Admittedly, TDs continue to work in their local constituencies, too, and this is what many voters like and want. If you are not seen to be active within your home area you will lose your seat at the next election. Regular attendance at the Dáil — and contribution to debates other than those of local interest — are rarely noted or appreciated.

The irony is that many politicians like to whinge that Dáil debates do not get enough media coverage, both in broadcast and print, and that there is little point in them being there if that work is not being reported.

Indeed, I suspect many TDs would not be impressed if there was extended TV coverage of Dáil debates — or even worse, live coverage every day. For a start, they would have to be there, to be seen to be there as the camera panned around the chamber. Their attempts to speak might also be broadcast — and not to their benefit, given the poor standard of the contributions coming from many.

The attendance records in the Dáil are pathetic. While most TDs are milling about for leader’s questions and other main showpiece events they quickly exit the Dáil when the main events come to a close. That’s the way they like it. They could argue that there’s little point in sitting in the Dáil for hours on end listening to debates when there is work to be done.

Governments in recent years have had a poor record in introducing new legislation. Most gets moved — or proposed — late in one of the Dail’s short sitting terms — and tends to get pushed through relatively quickly with little time for debate. Work anyway, as many of the TDs see it, is not debating important pieces of legislation, but seeing to the requests of those constituents who decide the most important role of a TD is as a glorified social worker or lobbyist.

These TDs go to the Dáil chamber on four main occasions: when they have to vote, when their party whips decide they need to be seen giving support to the leader in front of the TV cameras and when there’s something going on that’s of specific interest to their constituents, or when they’re promoting their own profile as a party spokesman. Sometimes they introduce private members’ bills to raise their profiles, knowing the Government will block them. That’s the way it is, or at least it has been for the 96 days on which the Dáil was open to conduct business this year. Its schedule for next year is already set out: the Government plans for the Dáil to be open on only 93 days because of the demands of the local and European elections and the rerun of the Lisbon treaty campaign.

Some people are of a mind that this number of days is actually more than enough. The cynics say it limits the damage these people can do. Maybe the Dáil is a useless talking shop, but it does introduce, debate and pass/reject laws that impact on all of our lives, like them or not.

AND these are important times, the most important in generations. Press conferences in Dublin Castle to outline the plan to restore the economy are welcome — as are further extensive media interviews — but the opposition has a role in our constitution to fulfil. It needs time in the Dáil to do this. The Dáil needs time in January to do this.

Chief whip Pat Carey defended the timetable when I spoke to him on The Last Word on Wednesday on the basis that this January’s schedule is the same as it has ever been — and that there could be an emergency recall if legislation was needed.

But Labour’s Emmet Stagg nailed him on the first point. There used to be the tradition of a late start in January to allow the Government time to prepare the budget, which would be introduced then on the second day back. For years now the budget has been announced in the first week of December — with no time off to prepare for it — and this year it was launched disastrously in October. So there is no reason why the Dáil could not sit from the first week of January.

There will be plenty to debate. If politics is to have a meaningful role in our society — and be relevant to the public — then those elected to jobs paying a minimum of €100,000 per annum, before very generous tax-free expenses are added, as well as payments for committee work or as ministers, must be seen in their Dáil seats.

The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm.