Madam, – Well done to John McGrath in expressing his concern that politicians share the pain of the economic mess (November 4th), which has been created primarily by the politicians failing to properly regulate the banks.
Having the current number of TDs (166) has not helped to protect the nation. We now should reduce the number of TDs to 83. Straw poll research indicates such a proposal would receive massive support from the public.
The advantages of this change include: 1. Providing true leadership in times when cuts are required everywhere. 2. Reduction of costs. 3. Giving politicians the opportunity to restore some of their damaged credibility with the public. 4. Reducing the number of representatives per head of population closer to international norms. 5. Offering the potential to reform the political system to ensure that TDs only do work of national value (since there would be fewer of them).
Finally, this would be relatively easy to implement, requiring one simple constitutional amendment and a fairly straightforward re-arrangement of constituencies.
The catch: a constitutional amendment can only be put to the people following a Bill passed by the Dáil. Will the turkeys have the moral courage to vote for Christmas? – Yours, etc,
DAVID MacDONALD,
Mount Merrion Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.