- cactus flower wrote:
- Another day of action, I think. Second day back after the Christmas holidays
It isn't the second day back after the Christmas holidays. It is the second day of the spring session of the plenary session Parliaments are organised in sessions. The so-called holidays are in reality the time needed for the legislation to be dealt with in the next time to be finished, and for staff to do preparatory work for a session.
That said, the period between plenaries are far too long, but that is a decision of government. A gap between them is too long, and each session is too long. A more sensible way to arrange it would be to have a lot of short plenary sessions rather than three very long sessions with big gaps in between. They should probably arrange them over a four week cycle, with three weeks of plenary sessions and one week of none, to allow the next month to be planned in that week of no plenary. Instead staff have to prepare for a three month session in one go.
BTW TDs have been in the Dáil for weeks, attending committee meetings. The reason why those meetings are not covered when the plenary session is in recess all the poll corrs are off on holidays. Last year a poll corr appeared on radio to whine about TDs being 'off' for a month. The TDs, in their offices working, all heard about their supposed holiday. And where was the poll corr doing the interview on her mobile from? The Caribbean.
The myth about long holidays where nothing happens and the entire system is shut down is cobblers. But then it is like the myth of how all of RTE takes three months off. No they don't. They don't present their shows for a two-three month, but it isn't because they are on holidays. They might take 2-3 weeks off. The rest is spent recording shows to be shown months later. (A thread on p.ie ages ago went into a rant about how Joe Duffy was 'on his holidays again' when he disappeared off the programme for two weeks. Actually he was in RTE every day, working in the television centre on a television show that was broadcast 6 months later.
The same is true of 'politicians' holidays'. Most may take 2 weeks in the summer. The rest is spent working. Plenary sessions are only one small part of the job. In any parliament most real work is done in committees and committees meet 10 months a year.
Portal 