Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy's comments this week that backbenchers in Government are standing over bad practices of the past signals one thing - a life in politics isn't for everybody.

The Dublin South East (Dublin Bay South) Deputy says one of his reasons to get involved in politics was to enact change - and to be fair that gets people elected. Whether it was Barack Obama in the United States in 2008, or as one element of Fine Gael's '5 Point Plan' in 2011 - the word change has resonated with people and they have voted for it. But just as Barack Obama has found in America, making those changes is a lot more difficult - and certainly doing them in your first term would not be easy.

Eoghan Murphy could be disappointed at not getting a call up to the junior Ministerial ranks last summer - seven others who were first time TDs with him in March 2011 did, and indeed four who had never sat in the Dáil chamber until 2011 have made it all the way to the Cabinet table.

Realistically if all the first-timers wanted jobs, Enda Kenny and Joan Burton would have been creating dozens of Ministers of State, and so there are always going to be people who need to fill those backbenches. There needs to be people who will go into the chamber day after day and deliver a speech on a piece of legislation, or an opposition motion. That's how the system works, and changing it, even if you genuinely wanted to, wouldn't happen in one term, or maybe even two. TDs need to work with the system to try and change it, and not necessarily expect radical differences overnight.

"I was in Sinn Féin, Eoghan wouldn't last a day in that party" says Killian Forde. The former Councillor defected to Labour, before leaving politics altogether.

"There's an increasing attempt by the parties to centralise. That's probably most pronounced in Sinn Féin, and in Labour least. But there is the idea that you have to have a single message or brand and that means that more and more people in the parties are becoming frustrated" says Forde.

He says politics is "horrific", describing how there is no privacy and that the hours are long. "Some people get off on what I call the 'local fame'. They love getting stopped in the shopping centre every two minutes. But one thing for certain is that on the doorsteps you are never asked about policy. Realistically for most politicians you are a conduit between the State and the citizenship".

Looking at Ministers, Ireland is not alone in putting politicians in charge of multi-billion euro Departments. Qualifications are rarely looked at, in fact some of the time it is about what 'camp' you are in. Are you a loyal supporter of the leader? Have you been on the right side of a heave? Or have you managed to hang around long enough that you have to get a job?

'Last man standing'

"Irish politics is about the last man standing," says Forde. "If you stick at it long enough you'll eventually get elected. But your raw ability will only get you so far. Politics is the only profession I know where if you work harder and harder it pays off. In other jobs there is only so far you can go by actually working hard." 

But he says he decided politics wasn't for him when he realised that he was forgetting why he got involved, and that he really questioned about trying to become a TD, would it be too much like a job or a profession?. "When you think that you are going to wake up everyday and your first thought is 'How can I promote myself today?', you realise that politics can be destructive. And when you realise that politicians have to be both arrogant and insecure at the same time, that makes you think how dangerous it is", says Forde.

Eoghan Murphy isn't alone though on his thoughts about reform. Others in his party are just as vocal. Cork TD Michael Creed is among them. What the two probably share is that they are not in the camp of the leadership. Murphy is a founder of the 'five a side club', the bunch of rebel TDs who don't agree with everything the Government is doing. Creed fell out with the leadership when he backed Richard Bruton in the 2010 heave.

"The Executive guards jealously its own responsibility without sufficient engagement with all the parties. We very often have the dialogue off the deaf in the Dáil chamber where people come in and submit scripts without ever listening to the points being made by the other side. Nobody seems to be interested in what anybody else has to say and that's the poverty of the chamber - it's unwillingness to take on board constructive proposals" says Creed.

The system

Fianna Fáil Senator Averil Power came to the upper house having spent time working as an advisor to former Minister Mary Hanafin. She admits the system weighs her down but has found ways to work around it. "The system is stifling but I have looked at ways around it. I published the adoption legislation as my bill, not as the party's and I sought the support of two other Independents. I am now lobbying behind the scenes to see if I can get it accepted" says Power.

The Seanad though is now a different beast - the coalition has lost its majority there. Independents now effectively decide on the success or failure of legislation. The Dáil of course is very different because the Government has a two-thirds majority. That leads to little discussion. Of course some backbenchers like it. They can use the whip system as a cover, go back to constituents who don't like something and say 'the party made me vote that way'.

But Averil Power says the Dáil could and should change too. "The Irish Water legislation symbolises everything that was wrong in rushing that through last year. Maybe some of the politicians who have been around longer and are a bit jaded and accept the system for the way it is. But the overuse of the whip system is ridiculous. We inherited it from the British Houses of Parliament but they have reformed it a long time ago. But on certain policy issues where there is a divide between parties elected representatives have to accept that they are elected as a party representative and the party has set positions and have a right to expect you to follow that line" she says.

Maybe what Eoghan Murphy didn't realise when he ran for the Dáil was what national politics is about. Really the country is run by 16 members of the Cabinet and their advisors. The role of the backbenchers is to judge the national mood - ensure that Ministers who don't have much contact with the public are aware of things.

Now not for one second would I want to be a politician. As a correspondent covering politics the hours are fairly long. But at least I know I can go home at whatever hour of the night or morning and switch off. I don't have to deal with clinics, return calls, sort out passports, welfare applications, or any of that. TDs know what they sign up for, and it's for five years, and getting someone else to do it on your behalf because you are too busy as a Minister is a bonus.