Sir, – Michael McDowell notes that political parties in Germany use a more relaxed whip system than we do here in Ireland (“Our party whip system is too severe. Politicians should be able to vote with their conscience”, Opinion & Analysis, July 25th).
The absolute nadir of Ireland’s odious party whip came in 2013 with Enda Kenny’s warning to Fine Gael TDs, at the behest of the Labour Party, that they would not be candidates for the party at the following general election unless they voted for abortion legislation, breaking a promise which the party had given to voters at the 2011 election.
That same week, I met with a group of parliamentarians from Germany’s CDU, who expressed incredulity that a whip could be imposed on a divisive issue of conscience. One of them quipped that if the CDU attempted to impose a whip on abortion, the party would split three ways and none of the three groups would know which one had the right to expel the other two. Yet in Ireland, we would not hesitate to preside over such a Monty Python-style farce, as Mr Kenny showed by expelling nine Fine Gael TDs and Senators for standing by an election promise.
The ridiculous nature of the Irish party whip was recently illustrated by the decision of four Fianna Fáil MEPs to vote against the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission, flouting their official party position.
Her defeat would have plunged the EU institutions into months of political chaos, and yet Fianna Fáil imposed no sanction on them. However, if all four had been members of the Dáil or Seanad and had voted against the Government on even the most minor and inconsequential committee amendment, they would have been immediately expelled from their party.
We have long since passed the point at which political parties should amend their internal rules to impose the whip only on serious matters of confidence, or on measures which were explicitly proposed in their election manifestoes.
If they refuse to do so, legislation should be introduced to make a reform of the whip a condition of the enormous funding which parties receive from the exchequer. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.