It’s time for has-been TDs (and their perks) to rev up and disappear
MICHEÁL MARTIN need not worry about acknowledging the contribution of past Oireachtas members. If the indefensible indulgence of free parking for life afforded to former TDs and senators is removed, these one-time representatives can find some consolation in pensions beyond the fantasies of most workers in the country.
The Taoiseach was asked about the parking perk and how it might be affected by a campaign to restore a garden in part of the Leinster House complex, with the issue framed as an environmental concern.
But whatever climate benefit might accrue from reducing the number of cars driving in Dublin city centre, even by just a couple of hundred, the story has helped to return an example of mind-boggling largesse to the headlines.
Martin might have had a multiterm TD in mind when he spoke of ‘the role former parliamentarians played in society and in life’. Yet even a deputy with noble parliamentary service, who survived fraught electoral contests to claim their seat time and again, is well looked after for their efforts by the public purse, and their claim on free parking in the middle of the capital is difficult to justify.
What, though, of the former senators who can enjoy the same advantage – despite not standing for election and perhaps only having served a brief time in the Oireachtas?
Yet such a person can, if they wish, park for free in a city returning to its choked capacity.
And the feeble contention from the Taoiseach that former members of the Oireachtas do not take advantage of free parking as often as one might suppose, is not the point. This is a perquisite that cannot be convincingly justified.
It won’t affect the national debt if it is removed, and nor will it make an appreciable impact on Ireland’s carbon output.
What its removal would do, however, is provide some thin sliver of evidence that the Government understands not only the tremendous benefits enjoyed by serving and former national politicians, but also the pressures that are steadily constricting around other working people.
Concerns about the risk of energy shortages come as consumers are told to expect increases in heating and electricity bills this winter that will amount to hundreds of euro.
Working people are being primed not to expect much in the way of Budget benefits, even as a wearisome, predictable squabble breaks out over a pandemic bonus that will cost a fortune and disgruntle as many as it pleases.
And, meantime, the Budget is being completed as a cacophonous and contradictory squawk of promises is emitted by some senior ministers. The mediumterm economic outlook is uncertain as the effects of removing the Pandemic Unemployment Payment are awaited, and the impact it will have on struggling small businesses is feared.
If the longer term is shaped by the Climate Action Plan due to be published this month, then that will come at a high price, too. Ignoring the climate imperatives may well carry a catastrophic cost, but doing the right thing in this case will not be cheap.
Revoking free parking for former TDs and senators would not fortify the economy ahead of those challenges, but it would, at least, show a government that understands some legacy indulgences are no longer on.
The ruling coalition is vulnerable enough to the charge of failing to understand the concerns of the hard-pressed as it is, and Martin’s attempt to defend free parking added to the impression of an outof-touch ruling clique.
It will take a deal more than closing a carpark to counter that, but ending this absurd privilege would be a start.