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'They're all very nice to your face but they'd stab you in the back'

As the Dáil breaks for summer, many first time TDs say they find the job frustrating.&nbsp...
Newstalk
Newstalk

10.34 22 Jul 2016


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'They're all v...

'They're all very nice to your face but they'd stab you in the back'

Newstalk
Newstalk

10.34 22 Jul 2016


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As the Dáil breaks for summer, many first time TDs say they find the job frustrating. 

After only 11 weeks of Enda Kenny being Taoiseach again, TDs are about to embark on a ten week summer break. 

Speaking to Newstalk, a number of the TDs who were elected for the first time in February expressed their frustration about the job and how slow it is to bring about change. Other issues mentioned include speaking time in the Dail and the large amount of time devoted to the job.

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A number of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs say it’s unfair that smaller groups and parties get the same amount of speaking time as parties with more than 30 TDs.

People Before Profit’s Brid Smith said:

“I find a lot of people false in here. They’re all very nice to your face and then stab you in the back as soon as they walk past you.”

While Independent Alliance TD Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran said:

“I find it frustrating. I find it very slow. I wouldn’t mind bringing a few people around the table and asking them to shake the whole place up and make more value out of the time of the TDs. I think things are dragged out.”

Fianna Fáil’s Marc MacSharry expressed that he dislikes the “proximity to the 'ability to make change' but yet the inability to make it happen due to lack of agility of government departments. The practical reality is that few if any interconnect seamlessly.”

The majority of TDs surveyed agreed that they were annoyed at the length of time it took to form a government.

That being said, almost all of them said they enjoy the job and that getting things done on a local level for constituents is a particularly satisfying part of being a TD.


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