Gavan Reilly: Everyday lives in abeyance until a coalition is formed

I had a fascinating chat before the break with a newly-elected TD who was finding the learning curve a little tough. “Oh?” I said? “You’ve been on the county council, what’s the difference?”

The difference, this TD explained, was that he was already known by his constituents as being a brand new deputy – but had little power to do anything. The election had been on a Friday, his election was confirmed on the Sunday, and on the Monday his phone started ringing again. His number was already in the public domain from his time on the council, so plenty of locals already had it, but now the nature of the queries was different.

Yes, there was still the usual volume of inquiries about potholes, fixing a footpath, a local housing query, or someone complaining about a blinking street light – all the stuff that was up to the county council to solve, and which are (regrettably) still sent to TDs even though it ought to be the job of a councillor to get them sorted.

But there was also a second strain of query which, rightfully, are the sort of thing a deputy should be equipped to sort out. An older widow rings up looking to see if it’s possible to speed up her hip operation; a family is overdue for their child’s assessment of need for a disability; someone else has a winter holiday booked and only realised too late that their passport was due to expire.

Rightly or wrongly, those constituency cases are the lifeblood of many TDs’ offices - but while the government is in paralysis, little or none of them can be done. Forget the big-picture stuff of national management: everyday lives are in abeyance until a coalition is formed.