Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Whip system has Irish roots. Charles Stewart Parnell took a disorganised group of Irish MPs in the House of Commons and turned them into the Irish Party under a pledge to sit, act and vote together. He perfected the concept of the parliamentary party and Parnell-style parliamentary parties now exist in parliaments around the world. Some commentators, usually those with little or no practical parliamentary experience, comment on the Whip system as a danger to democracy. I disagree. The Whip system is based on a voluntary decision of any individual to agree with like-minded individuals to put their policies before the people at election time and then vote together as a group once elected, so as to provide their country with a stable Government.

Whenever I have put my name forward before the people of Wexford I have done so as a Fine Gael candidate in support of Fine Gael policies. The people who have given me their vote and their mandate have done so in the full knowledge of the policies and political party I support and on the understanding that my party would negotiate a programme for Government on the basis of those policies.

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