14 More TDs

Worst August for hospital overcrowding since 2004.
Almost €24 billion a year to the HSE – that’s €64 million a day, with the entire system geting worse as each year passes.
And what’s the solution for this?
14 more TDs.

The Electoral commission has decided that we need another 14 TDs and drawn new constituency boundaries. Another carriage on the gravy train, 14 more over bloated salaries, gold plated pensions and unvouched expenses, with likely a few future corruption scandals thrown in for good measure. This additional number of TDs will bring the total number to 174, for a population of 5.15 million.
To put that in to perspective, New Zealand has a similar population, 5.2 million and it has 120 members of parliament.  Australia has a population of 26 million, with 151 members of parliament. This ridiculous increase in Irish TDs is due to Article 16.2 of the Constitution, that states there must be a TD for every 20,000-30,000 people. That needs to be changed.
In total, the 14 new TDs could cost the taxpayer as much as €‎2.3 million per year in salary and allowances, which does not include unvouched expenses, over calculating mileage, and every other pie they’ll have their fingers in.

Now, is there a chance that one of them might actually work for the people?
Well, if they have Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael Green, Sinn Fein or the Labour party logo after their name, then no.
Remember a few weeks ago how Operation Citizen, or whatever it was called, had Guards on the beat around Dublin? You genuinely saw their presence. Forard  one week, and not one in sight.  A week it lasted. No current party in Leinster house works for the people, soundbites and optics is all we get.

Why would we expect anything else when a TDs basic salary is €107,376, not including allowances such as travel, accommodation, mobile phones and setting up constituency offices.
The travel and accommodation allowance ranges from €9,000 to just over €34,000, which can bring one salary north of €170,000. And that doesn’t include when they forget to submit donations, like Varadkar or grossly over exaggerate their mileage expenses, like Collins, Martin, Fleming and Byrne.
Or launder money through property dealings like Collins and Troy. And they’re all protected by the media. With no accountability required from any of them.

Also, the new 14 TDs, well they need offices too, which currently don’t exist, and extra space in the chambers. The Office of Public Works are currently looking in to that, which of course will be another bill for the taxpayer.
When, and I do mean, when, a party rises to challenge the political corruption, the civil service and all the rest of it – it will take years to accomplish. And that is why it is so important that workable project goals are set out and met.

As mentioned earlier, these new constituency boundaries, increasing three-seater constituencies to four will be a boost for the larger parties. Now just because Fianna Fail and Fine Gael set up the Electoral Commission and cherry picked its members, in no way suggests that this was intentional.