Christmas is about giving and caring. The political Christmas card is an anathema to all that is good about the true spirit of Christmas. Christmas cards produced and posted in bulk from politicians and banged out in their thousands is a relic of another era. It reflects more an attitude of privilege and entitlement from a political establishment which should be consigned to the scrap heap.
Getting a Christmas card from your local TD (or Senator) always smacked to me like someone asking you for a €20 spot, and then having the neck to come back and buy you a gift out of it.
"Others defiantly branded me a ‘Scrooge’, a killjoy trying to stifle the spirit of the season."
When I was elected to the Senate in 2011, that first Christmas I appealed to colleagues on all sides of the political divide to desist from sending out Christmas cards at the taxpayers’ expense. To be fair many members of the Oireachtas agreed. Others like Senator Terry Leydon took a different view and defiantly branded me a ‘Scrooge’, a killjoy trying to stifle the spirit of the season.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I like Christmas cards and all the good cheer they bring to our homes. I simply think that in this day and age it is entirely unacceptable for politicians like me to be printing and sending out Christmas cards en masse – only for the taxpayer to foot the bill.
As members of the Oireachtas we have a range of supports and services at our disposal to assist in fulfilling our roles to legislate and represent the public interest – free Christmas cards should not be one of them. The printing facility at Leinster House is supposed to be for the purpose of informing, advising and representing constituents, not to punish them with vainglorious Christmas cards often adorned with our own ugly mugs.
I am astonished to learn today that even some Ministers continue to take advantage of the Christmas cards printing and posting provision. I would have thought that they should be leading by example.
To their credit the number of TDs and Senators doing so is down dramatically to 47 out of 225.
The cost of the political Christmas cards this year is estimated at €2,305, down significantly on previous years and a relatively small amount in the grand scheme of things in terms of public expenditure.
However, the amount is not the issue, it is what it reflects, represents and symbolises - that the political establishment are still out of touch – in an age of austerity and cutbacks, when so many families are struggling, scrimping and scraping, particularly at Christmas time.
Political Christmas cards anyone? I say, return to sender!
