Dual mandate - Taxpayers fund naked nepotism

We sometimes witness nepotism when the sons of prominent people are appointed to positions due to their political influence, but nobody has grounds for complaint when such people are elected, because that is part of the democratic process. The electorate has the choice to elect or reject people, regardless of the prominence or influence of their parents.

Three generations of the de Valera family have served in the Dáil, as have three generations of the Lenihan family, but that was never nepotism.

In the case of Brian Lenihan, he was actually elected to the Dáil some years before his father. Síle de Valera has had the indignity of being rejected by the electorate and losing her seat during her long political career stretching over a quarter of a century, while her cousin Éamon Ó Cuiv also suffered an election defeat before making it to Leinster House.