Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I am an atheist, so I am not here by providence. I am here by choice, because I respect the work that Deputy Mathews has put into this Bill and appreciate his motivation. He has provided us with a good opportunity to discuss crucial issues such as why we are elected, who we represent, to whom we are accountable and, in essence, what is democracy. I would be shy about holding up any role models of democratic states. Be they in Lithuania or elsewhere, I have not seen an ideal system and do not put that forward. However, I am sure Deputy Mathews is correct that the system we have here could be considerably better than what it is.

It is a little rich to have to sit here and listen to the Minister of State talk about Dáil reform, when we have had guillotines and when we have a situation where when people like me who have been elected under a party banner, move away from that party, that party has the option to keep moneys that were associated with our election. The party benefits and wins and I do not believe that is democratic. It is great we have the opportunity to bring forward Bills here, but it would be far better if the Government took some of them on board. I think just one Bill raised in this process has not been opposed, but it is still buried in a committee somewhere. This process is very much token adherence to so-called "democracy". Therefore, with this Bill, Deputy Mathews has given us an important opportunity to look at the party system.

The Minister of State suggested that the reason for the party system is to mould a group of people into an effective unit, that it united the disparate Irish MPs under Parnell so that they could come together and take great strides forward. I do not buy that at all. It is supposed to be the case that if one is dealing with a political party, one knows what one is getting - that people stand for election on a certain ideological basis and on certain policies that flow from that. However, people know that is not the case. In the most recent election, we had a supposed democratic revolution through the ballot box. People voted for something completely different, opposing Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, but they got the exact same thing in Fine Gael and the Labour Party.

In fact, one can be in any party one likes, once one delivers for neoliberal capitalism. It does not really matter other than that. After that, it is a kind of window dressing. This is why we have had a complete alienation of ordinary people from the political system, including the people of Wexford the Minister of State mentioned who voted for him. I am sure many of them voted for him on the basis of the Fine Gael programme which stated Fine Gael would not introduce a home tax because people investing so much in their property over their lifetime or because of the struggles of young couples who could not afford mortgages. Fine Gael also said it would not introduce water charges unless everybody had a meter. Is it any wonder people are alienated?

The Whip system serves one purpose only, to preserve the status quo.It is a mechanism to immunise those in power from the pressure of people outside this House. It introduces rigidity and is inflexible in its operation. How many times have we seen people in this House pretend or claim to represent the people in their constituencies, but hiding behind the decision they made under the Whip system which was opposed to the wishes of those people? We have seen a greater affront in some ways, where people have lost the Whip on a local issue because they do not want "my hospital" closed down. However, they were quite happy to vote for the closure of other hospitals in areas where people did not have an opportunity to vote against them. It is this type of gombeenism and parish pump politics that has people completely turned off our system.

We should be accountable for all of the actions we take. We should be big and bold enough for that. I believe a machine which basically decides through its resources whether somebody gets elected is undesirable.

We have a huge problem here with a lack of genuine debate on issues because of the Whip system. For example, my own Private Members' Bill on the area of fatal foetal abnormalities and the need for provision for abortion in those cases will be up in the next session. There are 50 Deputies in the current Dáil who are on record as supporting the need for reform in that area, Members of every single party and a raft of Independents. Is it going to see the light of day? Are the families affected by this issue going to have their concerns addressed? I very much doubt it, but maybe the Government will surprise me this time around.

If we had a real democracy, there would be an opportunity for the people to have a right to recall midway through. Why should anyone put an X beside somebody's name in a ballot box thinking they are getting some package or individual to fight for them, and have to wait five years before they are able to do anything about it? A real democracy would empower people with the right to recall their representatives midway through the electoral cycle.

We could deliberate over matters of conscience for a very long time. I support the idea of Deputies being given a free hand in all issues, having genuine debate and then standing before the people. However, there are many issues people might deem to be what are termed "issues of conscience" which are really issues that people should be left to decide for themselves. It should not be the property of Deputies to be able to deny somebody in society the right to exercise their human right of expression, privacy or similar. The reality is that sometimes our legislation cuts across human rights rather than delivering them.

It is very welcome that we have been given the opportunity to discuss these issues. I compliment Deputy Mathews for introducing the Bill. We should be spending more time teasing this out because everybody knows that the system we have is completely unrepresentative of the wishes and the viewpoint of the people. I do not propose to have all the answers but it is very good that people in here are beginning to ask the right questions.

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