Westminster, for all its flaws, is a better version of democracy than what we have in Dublin

We should save money and just let Micheál Martin vote 44 times on each Dáil vote, writes John McGuirk

Watching the House of Commons in recent weeks, at the height of Brexitmania, probably the most unfamiliar part of it to those of us who observe Irish politics was the way in which the result of so many important votes was unpredictable. It simply wasn’t certain, even to the experts commenting on the television, whether Boris Johnson would win or lose each crucial vote as it came up.

This kind of drama simply does not happen in Dáil Éireann, where the outcome of every vote is known well in advance, and a very strict party whip system means that our politicians are so accustomed to voting for things that they don’t really believe in that hardly any of them question it any more. It is not uncommon for Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn to see 20 of their own backbenchers voting for the other fella in a commons vote. That kind of free thinking is unimaginable in Dublin.

Familiarity

Perhaps it is this predictability, and this familiarity, that has bred such contempt for our democratic institutions in those who serve in them. Since they all know how votes will go before they are even called, what does it matter if a TD votes twice, or three times, for an absent colleague?

The truth is that Irish TDs take part in votes seven or eight times a day and to most of them, it probably doesn’t even occur to them to ask what they are voting on. The bell rings, they walk in, and they push whatever button their party whip tells them to push.

It was Charlie McCreevy, years ago, who said that when he was on the backbenches, he wished he could just have sent a pair of shoes to the Dáil, and taken a holiday, because his job was just to stand where he was told.

In those days, you had to stand in a line to vote. Today, as we know, you just push a button. A child could do it, because there is no thinking involved. Most of our TDs get paid a six-figure sum to read a list telling them whether to push green or red on every vote, and that’s the end of it.

Is it any wonder then, that they don’t take it seriously? Most of them aren’t even required to think about it. The vote could be something that affects you, and your family, very seriously, or it could be on a major point of constitutional significance, and most of our elected politicians don’t even have the freedom, within the system, to think about it. All they do is vote the way they’re told.

In such an environment, it shouldn’t be a surprise that so many of them apparently treated votes in the Dáil as something they could skip and get a friend to cover for them.

Neither should it be a surprise that Michael Healy-Rae (who is hardly alone in this) would sign into the Dáil in the morning, collecting his expenses for a day’s work, and then appear at a funeral in Kerry before lunchtime. Michael has not yet explained the mechanics of this, but it’s safe to say that unless he can be in two places at once, he has some explaining to do.

Foregone
 conclusion

But then, would we have it any other way? The fact of the matter is that fewer people in Kerry will be annoyed at Healy Rae skipping a vote to make a funeral than would be grievously offended if he skipped a funeral to make a vote, especially when the result of the vote was a foregone conclusion anyway.

So, what exactly is the role of a back-bench politician in Ireland? Isn’t the truth that the decisions made in the Dáil would be the same if we just sent Micheál Martin and told him that because of the election results, he is allowed to push his preferred button 44 times on every vote? Leo Varadkar, because of the votes for Fine Gael, could push his button 50 times, and so on, for every party in the house.

The bell rings, they walk in, and they push whatever button their party whip tells them to push”

We wouldn’t even need elected Ministers. Just let the Taoiseach appoint people from outside politics to run health, and education, and finance, and so on. There’s a real argument to be made that the country would be better run.

The fact is that your TD doesn’t vote in the Dáil according to what he or she thinks best for the country, or according to what’s best for his or her constituency. They vote instead according to what their leader says.

The problem here is not the law, or the constitution, which says nothing about party whips. It is simply a culture that has been allowed to develop here, and it has disastrous effects.

It leads to fewer politicians willing to say what they think, or come up with new ideas, because they must stick to a party line. It makes it harder to stop bad policy, because politicians know that they will never be punished if they just shut up and do what they are told.

It leads to contempt for the democratic process, because the votes don’t even matter, so it’s easy just to get your friend to push the button for you.

One does not have to admire Brexit, or think the UK is in a good place overall compared to Ireland, to recognise that the Westminster system, for all its flaws, is a better version of democracy than what we have in Dublin. Politicians there vote with their consciences and aren’t afraid to argue for what they think.

In Ireland, they care so little that it makes no difference who even pushes the button. Remember that when they call to your door.