Former tánaiste Michael McDowell has called for urgent “now-or-never” change before the general election that would see the next ceann comhairle elected by secret ballot and not chosen by the incoming government.

Mr McDowell, a former minister for justice and attorney general, called for a number of radical changes to the Dáil and Seanad when giving the opening address of Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, last night.

He said the window for making the changes was narrowing fast and warned that if they were not agreed before this Dáil term comes to an end, then they would never happen.

Delivering the John Hume lecture, Mr McDowell said that Irish democracy was dysfunctional and the present system did not make the Executive or the government accountable to the Oireachtas.

“If the Standing Orders relating to the election of ceann comhairle are not changed now before the election,” he said, “the next ceann comhairle will inevitably be on the say-so of the next incoming government and, as present, on the basis of a whipped party vote.

“That office cannot continue to be a consolation prize for a disappointed would-be minister. It cannot remain in the gift of the incoming government, to be bartered away as part of the spoils of electoral victory between those who share ministerial power.

Pro-active champion

“Dáil Éireann, as our ‘House of Representatives’, badly needs an elected Speaker who is in reality, and is seen to be, wholly and unambiguously mandated and empowered to act as the pro-active champion of each and every single one of those elected TDs in vindicating their twin constitutional functions: firstly, of holding the executive power to democratic accountability and, secondly, as legislators,” he said.

To achieve that would require a free and secret ballot, he said, as happens in Westminster, where the perception of the Speaker is as a wholly independent office holder, with no ties to the government of the day.

He said the independence of the ceann comhairle could extend to him or her giving discretionary speaking preference to TDs who attend and participate in debates, rather than those who arrive in to read a script.

“It will become a mark office of State, reflecting the constitutional tripartite separation of powers,” he said.

Secret ballot

Mr McDowell also said that the chairs and vice-chairs of Oireachtas committees should also be elected by secret ballot, with each new holder giving, and being given, assurances on security of tenure, impartiality and independence.

“We badly need committees that will hold ministers to continual and effective scrutiny,” he said.

The proposals were practicable and achievable, he said.

“I am not aware that any party has opposed or would oppose such changes. On the contrary, a number of these proposals have received expressions of support in principle from a wide variety of elected politicians and commentators, including the Constitutional Convention . . . which deserves at least some recognition for some of its efforts.”

Mr McDowell said that such changes were anything but “populist gimmickry”.

Referring to his own experience as a backbench TD, attorney general, minister and tánaiste, he said: “When I was not an office holder, the culture and procedures of the Dáil prevented me and my colleagues from holding the Executive to adequate account.

“When I was an office holder, the same culture and procedures prevented me and my colleagues from being held to adequate account.

“In both circumstances, the result was seriously wrong and damaging.”