Professor David Farrell:

Yes, that is the crux of the matter. Ireland is kind of unusual. As I keep saying, we are an example of a parliamentary system that operates in the Westminster tradition. Unlike most of the other cases of Westminster-type parliaments, we have a coalition tradition which means we have the makings of a consensus parliament. That is one of the abiding features of the consensus parliaments of continental Europe - a coalition accommodating an inclusive notion of government. A coalition government is comprised of several parties, hence the need to co-operate and work well. There is also a notion that at any given time one party might be in or out of government. That means there is not an adversarial us versus them. It is quite a different culture.

There is no particular reason we have to be like this. All that is required is for one of the leaders of the parties represented here to make an undertaking in a manifesto for the next election that the first acts of his or her party if it is elected to Government would be to introduce a secret ballot to elect the Ceann Comhairle and to ask the new Ceann Comhairle to examine and change the Standing Orders for the Dáil. The Government should be willing to engage seriously in allowing the Parliament of this country to have more control over its agenda. If we start down that road, we would be well on the way to a more consensus based system.