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HE SERVED AS taoiseach for a total of nine years and is a decorated former Cork hurler and footballer but it turns out Jack Lynch wasn’t a bad singer either.
The above video is a short taster of the Fianna Fáil man singing that famous Cork song ‘The Banks of my Own Lovely Lee’ or ‘De Banks’ as it’s affectionately known in the rebel county.
We’re not sure when it was taken but the YouTube blurb says it was after an election victory.
This could mean it was in 1977 after Fianna Fáil’s famous giveaway election manifesto saw it take an unprecedented 20-seat majority in the Dáil.
Lynch was ousted as Fianna Fáil leader and taoiseach just two years later by Charles Haughey. He died in 1999, aged 82.
What about if they worked a bit harder, less holidays, longer hours? Just like the rest of us
@Paddy: Our constitution says we need one for every 20/30000 citizens
@Tom: we should have a referendum to change the number of TD’s in The Dail. There are far too many already and with the increase there’ll be another 14 freeloaders ie. teachers, publicans & landlords!
@Tom: Change the constitution far too many TDS already
@DJ D: How many of those categories are TDs?
@Tom: We need to change the constitution to allow a lower ratio of TD’s per person as we have too many as it is. One TD per 50k people is more than sufficient
@Tom: can u tell us what size of classrooms should teachers teach???
@Paddy: that’s asking a lot now,you obviously didn’t see the effect that had when Eamon Ryan do a few extra hours
@Tom: so change it to 50,000
Maybe that’s a decision for their employers, IE,the taxpayers
@Brian molloy: The same when it comes to wage increases
@Brian molloy: Changing the ratio would be a change in the constitution which needs a referendum.
@Keith Tobin:
TDs haven’t been able to set their own salary for more than a decade, it’s linked to public sector pay.
“Something has to give” of course something will give, our young people will have to emigrate in there thousands again soon enough……crisis averted
@Tom: exactly
@Tom: they don’t care. Any amount of people will come from less well off countries will come for a wage. TDs could care less if everyone under 25 left. It’s not about building society its about milking what’s there dry.
@Tom:
CSO figure say that more Irish people are returning than are leaving
Increase Garda numbers , nurses, Doctors ,,,,TD should stand for Total Disgrace.
Let’s be honest TDs don’t run this country Civil Servants do. This country needs more doctors, nurses, teachers, prisons, Gardai, carers, and son on. The last thing this country needs right now is more TDs.
More money down the drain and more waffle sickening
Maybe stop our population from increasing with illegal immigrants and look after our own – just a thought that would never occur to our supposed representatives.
@Thomas Sheridan:
We need more immigration, who do you think is going to build the housing we need?
@P.J. Nolan: Not many of the recently arrived immigrants, I suspect. Certainly far less than the number of them looking for state accommodation.
@P.J. Nolan: Not too many Ukrainians building house for us, even though they have work visas. Only ones working are working at night. Great addition to the country.
Who decides on these constraints figures 1td/30000 .Sure only half of the people vote most of the time anyway so its nearer 1td/15000.No other country would put up that kind of largesse.
@Willie Marty: The ratio is set out in the constitution.
@Gareth: needs changing to bring it into line with our European partners
We have enough TDs don’t need any more spongen of the taxpayers
The same with the number or Gardai, Nurses, Teachers, Doctors, Army personnel, hospital beds etc etc etc!!
Taking what the commission said into account, the amount if tds will increase. But here lies the problem, county borders. What we have now is a Dublin, Cork, Galway and now limerick tearing away from the rest of the country with jobs, investment, housing, road, and just about everything else. Rural problems are not being tackled, hence mass amount of young people moving to the big 4 cities. Where the government said they were going to tackled this ,the opposite has happened. Maggie Thatcher politics or should I say Tory politics being employed by FF and FG won’t mention greens as they are clueless. Its stands out.
@james hennessy: rural Ireland is over populated, no point in throwing good money after bad.
@james hennessy: Could you please explain a bit more the “Rural problems are not being tackled” part?
I live in the city and honestly want to hear it.
@james hennessy: ‘Big Cities’ ? – there is still a boreen between Cork/Limerick/Waterford – The further from the pale is the further from investment.
There’s more pressing things needed than TDs. More housing is needed. More doctors and nurses. Even more hospitals are needed. Sligo university hosp has to cover a massive area that is far too vast for one hospital. Government need to cop themselves on. Enough is enough now.
@Helen O REGAN: This is the Constitution, not the Government.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: time to change it so more important things than fat cats yaping in the dail and little or nothing being done they’ve had over TEN years with an overwhelming massive housing crisis, not good enough they’re supposed to be making decisions thinking and planning long term solutions it’s getting worse and has been for too long kicking the can down the road with lame excuses and passing blame they were put into power to run the country not line they’re pockets with massive salaries and expenses which they are there no denying that
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: it would appear the constitution is in need of drastic change as tds are surplus to requirements, not fit for purpose and a complete drain on society. However I’m interested in hearing one benefit a td is to the public, the tax paid & paying public that is.
Good excuse to raise tax to pay their wages
No more School Teacher’s, Doctors, Tree Huggers or Anyone taking the verbally P Should be Allowed to Stand. WE See How this Doesn’t Work for The People!!!
@Mick Hanna: Don’t vote for them, but banning people from standing in election is the compleye antithesis of democracy.
Like it or not, this is democracy. The alternative isn’t worth thinking about. Although there are some gombeens on here who seem to think democracy is a joke and something to throw away. Probably don’t even vote because they’ll put the X in the wrong place.
Personally, I think change the Constitution. In fact, every hundred years they should change it to reflect society.
1 TD for every 20/30,000 citizens is too low. Why not increase it to 40k given the ongoing increase in population.
Increased population because of all our friend who are shipped in
Just replace TD’s whith chatGPT. Or if we need an increase in TD’s reduce their wages and expenses inline.
Up here for thinking
So obviously they are not up to the job. Sorry but we knew that already.
One wonders how the likes of Jim O Callaghan TD and Barrister manages to be in the dail, and also be a successful barrister down the four courts?
TDs can’t be doing much if that’s the case.
I’ve e mailed his secretary a few times to ask, but never got an answer.
the number of tax lines on our payslips needs review as we can’t keep pace with the crazy accelerated cost of living.
If they done a bit of work they would have a better chance of keeping pace sack all of them
Is it right to say the UK has 104k / MP(650 mps)?
If ireland had those numbers, then ireland would need 2256 TDs per the constitution. So what should we change?
@Padhraig Farrell: Really? 100k per TD = 10 TD’s per million population.
That would mean -51- TD’s by the current 5,056,935, correct?
They need to get their fingers out of their preverbal and do some work! No more swine in the trough ! We don’t get enough return on investment!
Why dont some of the clever clogs on here with a the answers tun for election, plenty seats to contest, even new constituencies. But of course that would actually mean doing something Instead of being angry behind a keyboard and criticize everything and everybody, which is easy
have your say