Other members, those from the public, have been invited to join the expedition to discover for themselves . . . along with the programme host . . . just what it is that politicians do inside the walls of the national parliament building.

It's a nice idea, and a little coup for Tubridy to broadcast his show live from inside Leinster House. The well-plugged broadcast will coincide with the official conclusion of the political summer, as the Dail finally returns to work. The appointment of a communications director is another part of this new touchy-feely approach to garnering a better perception for the work done by the country's 166 TDs and 60 senators.

But they might as well commission a new logo for the Oireachtas to replace the national harp while they are at it because PR advisors, radio broadcasts and other costly components of a communications plan, cannot take from the one thing that would improve the public's view of their national parliament . . . more work. If the Oireachtas was open for business more frequently then we'd all think more highly of it. The Dail has met for 33 days so far in 2007 and only eight times since the new government was formed.

There's a plethora of legislation waiting to be discussed and enacted. There is a collection of topics on which the government needs to outline its position and for the opposition to scrutinise as a measure of accountability. The old argument about committees working away while the Dail is not sitting can no longer be used. The committee structure is so important that Bertie Ahern, Mary Harney and John Gormley have yet to get around to sorting out the new committees and appointing new members. More work, less PR, please.

ENDA KENNY and Eamon Gilmore got around to announcing their new frontbenches during the week.

The Labour leader had a somewhat easier task given his small numbers, but several of his parliamentary party will be on their toes in the coming months, especially Joanna Tuffy, who has been given a big job in marking John Gormley in Environment.

The retention of Joan Burton as Finance spokeswoman is an interesting endorsement especially as during the general election she was marginalised from the party's national campaign. Any advantage to Burton for the deputy leadership contest was offset by the promotion of the other contender, Jan O'Sullivan as Health spokeswoman. Over in Fine Gael Enda Kenny displayed a strong political backbone in dropping several of his colleagues who had soldiered for the party after the 2002 meltdown. But these are now different days for Fine Gael and with considerable choice available, Kenny has a much improved frontbench which should take some responsibility off his own shoulders.

The promotion of Billy Timmins to Foreign Affairs spokesman raised several eyebrows as did the decision to leave new TDs Lucinda Creighton and Kieran O'Donnell on the backbenches. Government ministers are likely to face much tougher scrutiny from an opposition which, ironically given the ending of the Mullingar Accord, will be more coherent than in the previous Dail.

GABRIELE PAULI'S proposal for a seven-year marriage contract may have got her into political trouble in Germany but the idea could easily be extended to the Irish political realm. The Green Party was not alone in questioning the worth of the once renewable seven-year presidential term.

Mary McAleese's decision to seek a second term deprived the public of a say in selecting the occupant of the Aras in 2004. A small constitutional change at the time of next year's European referendum would allow for a single seven-year term. Such a duration should be sufficient for any president to make a mark.

The main opposition parties would probably also favour a fixed time limit on Fianna Fail's tenure in office.

But they will have to wait for another five years to deal with that issue.