Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

We do not hear much from that quarter. The history of Whips is that they were engaged as loyalist supporters of the Prime Minister to go into alehouses and houses of pleasure around the Parliament in Britain to beat the Members of Parliament out of them and to come in to vote. The Whips in England are still given a ceremonial whip when appointed. We should change that in this republic and call them co-ordinators or a more suitable name.

I am a long-standing Whip and my job is to listen to the views of the parliamentary party Members at the weekly meeting and to consider the various votes that will arise in this House. We make a decision collectively and I must ensure that Members vote accordingly. The Members have voluntarily taken a pledge to do so. If they want to be in the group, they must do so. If one wants to be an Independent, one can be an Independent instead and then one does not have to have a consensus. The proposal to abolish Whips would create anarchy in this House. People like Deputy Boyd Barrett and the opinions in the Technical Group mean that one could make no decisions on anything. No parliamentary institution in a democracy in the world is without some form of Whip system.

This Chamber is a legislative Chamber, it is not a debating society. The only reason the Government gave space in the past number of weeks to debates about nothing was that there was no legislation prepared. Normally, after being elected, the Government would go into recess for a period to allow legislation for the programme for Government to be prepared but that did not happen in this instance and it was a mistake. As a result, there is plenty of time to debate issues without any result. That will not continue. When the legislative programme is up and running, there will not be time to allow the Opposition to criticise the Government. That is effectively why they want the debates. They can do that in their Private Members' time.

Holding the Executive to account is the primary function of this Chamber. Since the election, I have encouraged the Labour Party backbenchers to raise questions on the Order of Business, to table oral and written questions to the Government and to raise matters on the Adjournment. There is not need for much encouragement but I ask them to continue to do so.

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