ONE OF THE stars of E4′s reality show Made in Chelsea has launched a website which asks the Irish public to rank TDs based on their attractiveness - aping an infamous website created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The website, SexyTD.com, presents visitors with photographs of two of the 166 TDs in the Dáil and invites them to click on the picture of the one they find more attractive – or, in the site’s words, the one the reader would “rather have sex with”.
Using a scoring system based on the Elo method used for ranking chess players, the site then compiles an overall ranking of the most attractive members in the Oireachtas.
At the time of writing, Fianna Fáil’s former finance minister Brian Lenihan was ranked as the most attractive male, ahead of the Fine Gael pairing of Seán Kyne (Galway West) and Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East) – both of whom are serving their first terms as TDs.
Cork North West’s Aine Collins, another first-time Fine Gael TD, was the top-ranked female TD at the time of publication. Of the members of cabinet, transport minister Leo Varadkar ranked highest at 11th, ahead of Taoiseach Enda Kenny in 16th.
The site is the work of Francis Boulle, a diamond mining heir who is better known for featuring in E4′s ‘reality soap’ Made In Chelsea, which debuted earlier this month.
The website is the Irish sister site of another Boulle project, SexyMP.co.uk, which poses similar questions using photographs of the 648 current members of the House of Commons in Westminster.
Boulle had not returned requests for comment by the time of publication. On a note published on both websites, Boulle admitted that while he expected the projects “to offend some people, this was never my intention and I hope you will see the funny side”.
An Oireachtas spokesman said the images used on the site had been copyrighted by the Houses of the Oireachtas, which had not given its permission for the photos to be used. He told TheJournal.ie that the Oireachtas is currently seeking legal advice to examine if there has been any possible copyright infringement over the images.
TheJournal.ie contacted a number of TDs inviting them to offer comment or criticism on the website, but none of them had opted to return contact by the time of publication.
One TD, Fine Gael’s Alan Farrell, posted a link to the website on his Twitter page earlier – adding only a brief comment, reading: “OMG”.
A similar website called Facemash, which asked visitors to rank students at Harvard University based on their looks, saw its creator Mark Zuckerberg sanctioned by university authorities.
Do you find the SexyTD.com website offensive – or merely some harmless fun?
