“how is the electorate asking to have it both ways if they want constituency work by TDs and it’s political pundits who want them to ‘full-time legislators’? Perhaps the fault lies more with ‘political pundits’.”
Great point.
We were out canvassing last night, surveying an area in Dublin for local issues with our TD. People were specifically asked if there were any local issues they wanted to bring up, or any national issues, or to talk to the TD about national issues.
The casefile at the end of the evening had 25 queries for follow-up, one of which was a non-constituency issue.
In fairness, a lot of the ‘constituency work’ issues would have their source at cuts in Council funding and austerity measures that lead to the problems – so there’s a national context to a point – but the focus is on local issues.
I think the thirst for politicians to be near full-time legislators is one held by a certain section of society and punditry.