Sir, – One becomes a member of Dáil Éireann by contesting an election for that position. Nobody appoints themselves or is appointed by others as a TD to represent their area.
We live in a democracy, thankfully, and it is open to any citizen, regardless of occupation, to put their name before the people to serve as a public representative. This requires a little courage and much hard work. For rural TDs representing sparsely populated areas along the western seaboard, remote from Dublin, the amount of travel alone involved must be exhausting.
If teachers are over-represented in Dáil Éireann, it is hardly the fault of the teachers. It may in fact demonstrate a penchant for hard work among this cohort. – Yours, etc,
PJ McDERMOTT,
Ann Ingle: Deliberately going out of my way to move for no particular reason has never appealed to me
Gerry Thornley: How about an alternative look at Ireland’s Six Nations win over England?
Is Ireland anti-Semitic, an outlier of tolerance or in the middle ground?
How risky is it to buy a second-hand EV?
Westport,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – Further to your article “‘Would you employ a teacher to run the Central Bank?’: Readers deeply divided on Michael O’Leary’s remarks” (News, November 11th), Philip Lane, Patrick Honohan, Mario Draghi, Mervyn King, Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke are a few examples. – Yours, etc,
ÉAMONN CONLON,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.
