Professor David Farrell:

I know Whip reform is something in which Deputy Murphy has a lot of interest, as do I. There are differing views among the academic community on the merits of relaxing the Whip. I like to think there is a way in which to relax it somewhat, that we seem to be a little bit off the scale in this regard, but where one relaxes is another question. Undoubtedly an area to look at is committees. It is an unwritten rule when one observes committees in operation that the more open and less party-tied the committee is in its culture of operation the better. If we were to go down the road of having committee members able to speak the unspeakable across party lines, and even vote across party lines on committee reports, with the understanding it might still go back to plenary and there would still be the possibility of the Government saving the day if it was particularly worried about its legislation, at least it would start to instil the notion that individual parliamentarians have their own voices and are able to think their own thoughts.