relies on an informed electorate.
Now you can be informed.
What John Handelaar has done over at kildarestreet.com with the help of some other great people is deeply important. Quite simply, the Dáil record is now properly accessible rather than just available. The site enables you to do the following:
- Read a dramatically-more-legible version of the Dáil Record going back to January 2004
- Search that record by speeches or written questions, or by speaker, or by date or date range
- Sign up for email alerts for when a search query you’re interested changes
- Sign up for email alerts whenever a TD of your choosing says something or asks a question which generated a written reply
- Subscribe to RSS feeds for individual TDs or for search queries This isn’t just important for the content you find but also for the content that you don’t find. I will not be voting for any sitting TD in any future election unless I see continuous active engagement by them in the Dáil. If they don’t have anything to say, they shouldn’t be there.
The days of some gobshite getting elected because he got your daughter a job in the Civil Service or claims to be responsible for every penny spent in your constituency have to come to an end. kildarestreet.com will hopefully help usher the beginning of proper national politics involving those who care about our country and what it can become.
We all sat idly by as those running this country ran it into the ground. It’s time we started paying attention.
UPDATE:
I just used the site to check on our three TDs in Cork South-West. Summary as follows for the past year:
- Christy O’Sullivan (FF): Has spoken in 5 debates in the last year — well below average among TDs. Has received answers to 8 written questions in the last year — below average among TDs
- PJ Sheehan (FG): Has spoken in 81 debates in the last year — above average among TDs. Has received answers to 101 written questions in the last year — average among TDs.
- Jim O’Keeffe (FG): Has spoken in 51 debates in the last year — average among TDs. Has received answers to 173 written questions in the last year — above average among TDs.
After seeing this, I take back any ageist comments I made in the last election about PJ Sheehan and I’m disappointed to see my predictions about Christy O’Sullivan have proven true.
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