The (recalled) Dail
Date of birth: I feel that question reflects badly on you as a journalist, and on the many decent members of your profession, many of whom, I can tell you, might be far, far better qualified to conduct an inquiry of this nature.
... and the date of birth: I know all the ins and outs of your underhand tactics. I have answered that question many times before and I believe that my answer on the question is a matter of record.
Alright, let us move along. Appearance: This line of questioning is offensive, not to mention far from the point, far from the issues, and far from the concerns that I hear expressed weekly in my constituency clinic.
Why are you talking like that? Can't you just answer my questions? Oh sorry, I thought it would be amusing.
Well, it's not, it's dull and makes you sound shifty, like a TD. - Sorry. Let's forget it.
Could you tell me something about Dail Eireann? Certainly, deputies are elected to the House by the people of Ireland at least every five years.
And what do they do when they get there? On a typical day in the Dail, a TD's activities might include: researching and preparing speeches for debates, drafting amendments to and examining proposals for new legislation, contributing to debates on Bills and other important matters, voting on issues in the House, attending Questions Time, participating in the proceedings of any of 17 committees and making either oral or written representations on behalf of constituents to Ministers or Government Departments.
And when do they do all this? Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Gosh, to get through all that in three days they must start bright and early? Sittings commence at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesdays.
How do they ever manage to get through all that business in 52 weeks? They don't. The Dail is only in plenary session for about 39 weeks of the year.
That suggests quite a substantial holiday: Try telling any TD that they have more than three months holidays a year and you will undoubtedly be invited to join bi partisan talks on the importance of committees and constituency work. Besides, this year deputies are having their vacation, I mean recess, seriously curtailed. The crime debate means that instead of having no sittings between July 5th and sometime in September, everybody has to cram their half tanned bodies back into the stiff office clothes this week.
Given the very obvious hardships of the career, why is the idea that TDs have very pleasant working arrangements so persistent? I personally blame television. People used to assume that running the country had a lot to do with what happened in the Dail. When it became clear that not even the presence of television cameras is enough to draw more than a handful to most debates, people began to wonder what TDs did with their time. And when people got to thinking, they didn't need to see "gone fishing" signs on the empty seats to start doing their sums.
