Phantom Votes Cast in Dáil Eireann.

[Dartz]

So, it appearrs that a TD who was not in the chamber at the time of the vote, somehow managed to vote on at least five pieces of legislation.

Details lurk behind this elegant link here

What appearrs to have happened is that one TD has asked a colleague to vote on his behalf while he takes a phonecall - not an unusual thing at all and perfectly normal in the house. The standing rules of the house only require that a TD be 'present' in the house for their vote to be valid - they could be jerking to nude pictures of Marian Finucane in the gallery for all the rules care - so long as they're in the chamber their vote is valid.

Now what happens, is that this particular TD leaves the chamber entirely, and the colleague doesn't realise and pushes the TD's 'vote' button 5 times - while on the phone himself.

Oops. No malice is intended - only a good hard bollicking is in order.

This is now the biggest political crisis in the State. After the one TD that fell off a swing and sued a hotel for a stupd amount of money - and everyone called her a rediculous eejit for it. 

Compared to what's happening on both sides of ourselves I'm reassured by how positively pointless this actually is.

Of course, that's forgetting the homelessness crisis, the rental crisis, the mortage crisis, the climate crisis, the carbon-tax crisis and the complete unwillingness of the government to do anything about these. (Brexit is not on the list because, tbh, the Government are doing fairly alright on that one)

[hazard]

TBH Dartz, it's a good thing if that TD does get chastised for that, even if it's just a 'what were you doing you idiot?' They don't vote for themselves after all, they vote on the behalf of the people, and their vote should be treated with the care it needs.

Of course, that doesn't mean that one should forget all the other issues that need resolving.

[Dartz]

Like I said, a bollicking is deserved. But no malice was intended - and it didn't mark the swing in legislation of national importance - it was a common and accepted practice in the house and lookes like someone didn't realise someone else has *left* the chamber as opposed to being present but not in their seat.

It pales in comparison to the utter clusterfuck that is the rest of modern political news.

For that I am thankful