Political reform

Joe286

We desperately need it

Firstly the whip system needs reform so that Tds have more freedom to vote on issues like abortion

Funding could be removed if they oppose a move

We need to ban independents. We now have too many. Only parties getting 3 seats minimum should be allowed in the dail

A list system for about a third of Tds. Allows ministers to focus on their job rather than constituencies. They could be placed high on party list to ensure they keep their seat

Brussels Sprout

If you were to ban the whip system* how would you get unpopular legislation through?

Sometimes governments need to take unpopular decisions for the good of the country.

No particular back bencher wants to vote for tax increases, cuts to services or legislation that is unpopular with some lobby group that is powerful in their constituency, but sometimes those are exactly what are needed.

Seems like a recipe for populism.

*good luck with that btw - considering the only people with the power to actually ban it are the very people (the party leaders) who find it most useful

rock22

To be honest your proposal makes little sense.

You want to change the whip system, effectively turning the Dáil into a collection of 160 independent TDs, but you also want to ban independent TDs standing for election.

dulpit

A whip system is vital or else nothing actually will get done. Argue all you want about issues within your party, but then vote as a block once those arguments are done.

Regarding independents, I don't see the benefit of voting for one myself but I also don't agree with banning them - if somebody wants to run for election they should be allowed, and if people want to vote for them, that should be possible too.

The list system idea though is interesting. A split between locally elected and nationally elected TDs would have the benefit of some being able to not have to worry about local issues and would allow ministers concentrate more on their roles. It may also allow for a slightly fairer reflection of the number of seats won by parties. although not as much as I would have expected (e.g. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Greens, Soc Dems, Solidarity-PBP all got slightly more seats than their vote share indicated; Sinn Féin, Aontú and Labour got slightly less). The biggest issue with a list system is that Ireland regularly votes for independents to a high enough number and a list would mean these would be ignored - skewing the results unfairly towards the parties.

Hotblack Desiato

Firstly the whip system needs reform so that Tds have more freedom to vote on issues like abortion

As if there's some groundswell of TDs desperate to ban abortion but are afraid to vote accordingly 🙄

TDs voting against what their constituents want on such an important issue will find themselves unemployed before too long. There's a reason Renua don't exist and Aontu have one seat and are unlikely to get more.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058378448/political-reform

Thanks to FPTP there's few independents in the UK.

Thanks to safe seats the UK effectively operates a list system in more than a third of constituencies.

As for the whip, in the UK being deselected means an MP would have to defect to another party or run as an independent. Here where we have multi-seater , a TD could run as an independent and toe the party line like Lowery for FG or numerous "independent" FF TDs.

Hotblack Desiato

The UK system is worse than ours in every way.