Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept that the amendment to that is a political judgment. I do not know whether the amendment is constitutional or not. I am not accepting it. I am saying that the law as drafted is constitutional in the view of the Attorney General and the Government.

Deputy Naughten again talks in terms of parties or individuals. It is a fairly fundamental philosophical discussion. We organise our political systems in parties. It is a point made by Deputy Catherine Murphy as well in terms of opposing the Whip system. I can honestly say that we came into Government three years ago and faced a set of economic challenges that were virtually unprecedented, certainly in my political lifetime and probably in anybody's lifetime. We had to make a series of decisions that were enormously difficult and usually unpopular. If everybody could parse and analyse every one of those decisions and have a free vote, would we have made progress? I believe in the party system, internal debate, majority decision and a Whip process that will get the matters done or not.

People may philosophically object to that but it is a very important principle. We would not have got through the last three years without having that discipline to make the corrections we had to if every individual could, on a case-by-case basis, talk about the things that affected their constituency and make a decision on that or absent themselves from a provision they did not particularly like. That would be difficult.

I agree with Deputy Catherine Murphy on the requirement to have a good balance between the Executive and Parliament. I have argued this point for most of my political life. We have made much progress in recent times because the committee system, as evidenced by the lack of attention from the media for our debate here, is working much better. We need to continue to restore that balance to ensure we have the capacity within the Dáil to hold the Government to account as provided for in the Constitution and within the Oireachtas to ensure the business of the people is done fairly.