Politicians who are Landlords

I don't think law makers should have any conflicts of interest. If they're a housing Minister they shouldn't be a landlord. If they're the education minister they shouldn't be a teacher etc

Knowing the business as an insider is not a requirement to be a minister. They need to be open minded and have good analytical and critical thinking skills and be prepared to do the work of reading up on their brief and meeting with all the stakeholders.

Being one of the stakeholders themselves will inevitably bias their position. Not always that they'd purposely act to enrich themselves, but in a more heuristic way

No. During a housing crisis of unprecedented extent, no landlord should be in government because all members of government take collective responsibility for decisions. They should not be appointed to government while this crisis remains.

?? where did i say that?

The RTB online system is a mess and they don't send out reminders when registration is due.

This leads to landlords inadvertently missing registration dates.

If they ran it like the motor tax system where you just go online with a unique pin and pay in a simple transaction compliance could be improved.

Just a thought but maybe part of the reason politicians are over represented in the landlord business is that it is the sort of business you can be in while attending to your political role.

You just invest the capital and hand over the day to day management to an agent.

What about if they are a property owner?

What if they are a renter?

Each of those circumstances could be viewed as a conflict of interest.

Politicians are people too, unless we want them to live in a cave and exist on soup and water.

Some may be quite successful before they enter politics, and some be living in a council house.

It doesn't matter if they are a renter, a landlord or whatever so long as it's all declared and above board.

Owning your own property or renting a property are common experiences in our society. Most people will have been renters at least at some point in their life, and the majority of the population (up to now) have been property owners at some point in their life.

Home ownership rates are consistently (well above) 60% across the general population.

What percentage of the Irish population are landlords?

Well 1 in 4 of our legislators are landlords, https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/register-of-members-interests/ but out of the general population, I'd put it below 5% (Can't find a statistic on this)

Conflicts of interest are not all equal. If you are representing your constituents, then having interests that align with your constituents makes you a better representative. If your interests are opposed to your constituents, then that's a conflict of interest.

Its only a conflict of interest if your interests conflict with the interests of those you are representing

Its about 3% of the population who are landlords. Less than that if you exclude people who barely count, like those who rent a spare room to a student for part of the year

Already, the Dail,are unrepresentative given that 25% of TDs are landlords

Your last question, loads of places force elected officials and civil servants to 'recuse' themselves if they have a conflict of interest. Its not just a matter of declaring your interests, you have to recuse yourself from decisions where you have a conflict of interest.

It's a matter of integrity and standards in public office.

If anyone can become a TD, why are half of the TDs millionaires?

There would be a much more diverse demographic spread of TDs if it was possible for anyone to become a TD.

I don't have an objection to having professional politicians who make a career out of it. They will almost inevitably become corrupted in some ways, which is why we need oversight that reigns in the power of the government and keeps them somewhat representative