Sir, – If we are to have another referendum, is is not time we had one to reform the constitutional requirement to have one TD for every 20,000 to 30,000 people? We are already over-represented and as our population increases this will only get worse. The Electoral Commission looks set to recommend increasing the number of TDs to 180 before the next general election. We could end up with more than 250 TDs before 2050 if the population continues to grow.
For our democracy to function properly, we need a smaller number of accountable TDs, not more. We also need greater competition to become one. The current system encourages clientelism and a focus on local, parochial issues rather than encouraging TDs to address national ones such as the climate crisis, national infrastructure (eg for energy and health), the housing crisis, the policing crisis, the looming pensions crisis, the needs of our Defence Forces, or in the recent past the lack of banking regulation and enforcement.
Single-seat constituencies and a much smaller number of TDs whose performance on issues of national interest could be more easily tracked would better serve the electorate. Councillors can deal with local issues. We were promised political reform following the banking crisis in 2008 but there has been none in either the Dáil or Seanad. The Dáil is in need of urgent reform. The last thing we need currently is more TDs on the beat. – Yours, etc,
GARRETT CORMICAN,
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Monkstown,
Co Dublin.