3 of 4 Clare's TDs simply don't bother communicating with their electorate. We can only assume they are doing nothing.

The election  is done and dusted, the new government is formed two months now  and Dáil politics is settling down to a pattern. The public is getting used to the new faces in our parliament. The television and radio political chat shows buoyed by the historic moments on the economic front are attracting large audiences.

Let's have a look at what we are seeing from the Clare men.


 The Clare People newspaper over the past few weeks has harried the four TDs for a weekly diary that the paper undertook to publish. The editor indicated this would be a ideal way for readers and the electorate to get a handle on what our men ' did for Clare.'  To a  man the four men have declined this opoortunity to communicate with those who voted for them. One or two of them took offence at the tone of  request. Either way, the Clare people has taken to publishing a the weekly diary - except it consists of a statement that the lads are refusing to play ball.

No we won't tell you what we're up to!!!!

I thought  it would be worthwhile measuring / recording our men across a number of areas to see how they are faring and  engaging at national level and in communicating to us the electorate.


Let's have a look at their websites

Pat Breen's (FG) website tells us about his Egyptian sojourn and 'welcomes' €99k of flood relief expenditure. Deputy Breen's website contains a national debt clock that no doubt was a wheeze dreamed up by the party when in opposition but now it seems odd given there is no mention  of what Pat is personally doing about it. The website has nothing of substance on national matters, no initiatives championed and only 2 updates since the Dáil was formed. Not updated for well over a month.

Joe Carey's (FG) Website    notes; a letter he wrote to the American ambassador seeking a Shannon stopover for the Obama visit, 'welcomes' the Clare School building summer programme and his representations regarding Vietnamese adoptions. Most noteworthy, perhaps was a personal condemnation of Colm Doherty's payment upon  leaving his position as CEO of AIB. There are a couple of other stories that come under the category  of lobbying for or welcoming local resources which of course is not the main objective of a TD.

Michael McNamara (Labour) website  tells us nothing. No updates whatsoever since the election.

Timmy Dooley (FF) website  has what reads like a party press release that attack the politcies of  Ruairi  Quinn  and the impact on rural commitment. Nothing else.

Website Summary - Joe Carey is clearly at least keeping some degree of freshness and updates on his website. Overall  though the sites are awful, depressing and certainly the TDs websites' fail to tell us what they have been  up to (if anything!)

Maybe our men are engaging and updating on Twitter? Let's have a look!

No word from Timmy!

No update since February from Michael McNamara

Joe Carey is keeping us up to date

Only Joe Carey is engaging on Twitter. Joe is an activer user and must be credited with engaging and responsing to quereis. He also frequently uses Twitter to communicate press releases. A good example was him noting his Dáil speech on suicide.

Pat Breen has nothing to say

 Messrs Breen, Dooley and McNamara garnered many hundreds of followers but since the election have avoided usage? Pat Breen's only tweet was to tell me he spoke about Egypt in the Dáil!

 Facebook - Reveals similar nil updates since the election.

Conclusion
The overall level of updates and efforts that our  men are putting into updating the electorate on what they are doing is outrageous. Remember, they get a salary of c€8,300 per month to work for the country.

After two months my conclusion is that Pat Breen, Michael McNamara and Timmy Dooley are doing very little. After all, if they were, surely they would tell us, wouldn't they?

As John Giles says 'you can only judge what you see'.