Madam, – It seems TDs doing constituency work are the culprit for the state of our Republic, as far as The Irish Timesis concerned, following its series "Renewing the Republic".
The Editorial marking the end of the series (April 6th) twice refers to derogatory descriptions (made in the course of the series) of TDs as ward-heelers. One such description came from Des O'Malley, founder of the Progressive Democrats and former TD. Mr O'Malley is the only former politician singled out for mention in the Editorial, but notably he is not singled out for derogatory mention in the way we current TDs are. There is no sense that The Irish Timesmight consider that it was the politics of the political parties in power since 1997 that might have led to our current situation in this country.
The Progressive Democrats was in power for most of that period, only winding up in 2009, after the voters had reduced the party down to two TDs. It is disappointing that the paper known as the paper of record is so blind to the idea that it might have been the neo-liberal politics of a party in government, ie the Progressive Democrats, that led to our economic crisis, rather than the well worn tradition of constituents feeling they have the right to contact the TDs they elected to the Dáil. – Yours, etc,