Over-representation of teachers (and certain other professions) in Dáil Éireann isn't a new thing; it has been the case since more or less forever.
But perhaps this shouldn't surprise us. If you accept that being a politician is a lifestyle that calls for certain qualities and offer certain experiences or rewards, then it stands to reason that some professions — those which call for similar qualities and/or offer similar experience and rewards — will end up being over-represented. Teachers tend to be good communicators; they enjoy, or are good at, or at least are experienced at, communicationg on a group level as well as an individual level; they tend to be curious about/interested in the world; they tend to be "people persons"; it's a profession that enjoys a fair degree of social esteem, is considered to be beneficial to the community, and is not considered to be motivated by greed. All of this will tend either to make them more likely to become involved in politics or more likely to be successful in attracting votes or both.
You could embark on a similar analysis to work out why, say, lawyers are over-represented. There'll be a different set of characteristics involved but the basics will be similar; the nature of lawyering will mean that lawyers are more likely to have characteristics that either draw them to politics or give them a competitive edge in the practice of politics or both.
This isn't a problem unless you think it's a problem, and if you think it's a problem you need to able to say why. What, exactly, is the evil that results from having too many teachers in Leinster House? If you want to change it, you're going to have to change the nature of politics so that teachers are less drawn to it or so that the qualities teachers tend to have no longer contribute to political success, which is a fairly drastic thing to do, so you need a very good case for doing it.
It's probably better to think in terms of who is under-represented in electoral politics, and what problems does that lead to, and what changes would we have to make to improve the participation of these groups?
I'm not convinced, incidentally, by Brendan's initial assertion that "there are too few business people" in the Dáil. In the current Dáil, 10 TDs identify themselves as business/business owner/business manager or something of the kind. Another 6 are accountants, a profession which requires some understanding of/engagement with the running of a business. And a good number of others identify themselves with specific businesses, including agricultural consultant, car dealership, auctioneer, company director, retail business owner, small business owner, newspaper business managing director. Others don't own a business but work in the management of a business — co-op manager, publishing company manager, logistics manager, sales and marketing. Plus, of course, some of the 6 solicitors and most of the 8 farmers will be the owners of a small (or not so small) legal practice or farming enterprise. I think it's safe to say that the businesspeople in Dáil Éireann comfortably outnumber the teachers.
