Sir, – Eoghan Murphy is to be commended for breaking the code of omertà among Fine Gael TDs regarding the dearth of political reform since the party came to power ("Fine Gael promised political reform, but the Government hasn't delivered", Opinion & Analysis, November 5th). The Government swept into power with a mandate for real political reform. The referendum on abolition of the white elephant that is the Seanad was a farce, and in any event the abolition of the Seanad would have amounted to little more than the removal of the wing mirrors on a car which has serious engine trouble.
In practice, the Dáil has very little power because it is answerable to the executive (it’s supposed to be the other way around); the guillotining of Bills; and strict enforcement of the whip system. What’s worse is that the executive is largely controlled by an elite inner circle of Enda Kenny, Joan Burton, Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin ( the Economic Management Council).
The Dáil is supposed to be a legislature and is supposed to hold the executive to account. In reality it is a bloated rubber-stamp chamber, under the thumb of an all-powerful executive. It needs to be reformed as a matter of urgency. – Yours, etc,
ROB SADLIER,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – As someone who has long been a critic of the over-rigid party whip system, I found Eoghan Murphy’s piece to be compelling and a welcome breath of fresh air.
In his response to Mr Murphy’s article, Andrew Greaney (November 6th) notes that the whip “is not totalitarian: adhering to it is a choice” and that Mr Murphy can “jettison” his party membership if he ever feels that the position taken on any particular issue by his party leadership is at odds with his own.
Yet is it not patently ridiculous that voting against one’s party leadership on just one issue means that one is expelled from that party? What other non-military organisation operates on this basis?
But the present whip system still denies independence of thought and judgment and subjugates conviction to the need for blind obedience to the dictates of party elders. We have every right to expect the exercise of independent thinking and conviction from those we place our sacred trust in at the ballot box. And they shouldn’t be automatically expelled from their political party for doing so.
As the rise of Independents from across the political spectrum would at least in part suggest, the Irish people are awake more than they ever have been before to the pernicious effect of the whip system on Irish democracy. Those party politicians who bemoan the rise of Independents would do well to examine their own internal operations. Such an examination would reveal a gross imbalance of power between the party’s leadership and its individual elected officials. The whip system is the clearest manifestation of this power imbalance. – Yours, etc,
LARRY DONNELLY,
School of Law,
NUI Galway.