Fianna Fáil chief whip Tom Kitt warned the parliamentary party last night that greater discipline is needed if the Government is to survive tightly-contested votes in the Dáil.
His comments follow a series of closely-fought votes in the Dáil last week, including one motion which the Government won by just a single vote despite its majority of 13.
Mr Kitt said there was a "new chemistry" in the new Dáil and the party would need to toughen up in order to meet the challenge posed by a bigger Fine Gael party.
He said that from now on TDs will only be allowed to be absent from the Dáil in exceptional circumstances. Mr Kitt said he was dealing with members of the party who failed to turn up at a series of votes last week, a reference directed mainly at Cork East TD Ned O'Keeffe.
Mr O'Keeffe, who did not attend last night's parliamentary party meeting, was unaccountably absent from the vote on the motion of confidence in the Taoiseach last week. The following day he missed the vote on the Aer Lingus services from Shannon where the Government's majority shrank to one vote.
Mr Kitt said he had had a meeting with Mr O'Keeffe recently and was happy that the backbench TD will attend future votes.
The first test of Mr O'Keeffe apparent pledge to vote in future motions will come later today in the Dáil. The Cork East TD was unavailable for comment last night.
Speaking after last night's meeting, the chief whip said his comments were well received by the party. "We recognised what happened last week. There is a new chemistry in the Dáil. The Opposition includes an enlarged Fine Gael party, Labour has a new leader and there is just one non-government Independent TD," Mr Kitt said.
In particular, Mr Kitt said a much more disciplined stance will be adopted regarding the pairing of deputies, a system which allows Government TDs to absent themselves from the Dáil by pairing themselves with a member of the Opposition.
"I'm happy to say that we'll be tightening the situation with regard to the pairing of deputies and allowing them to be absent. We need to crack the whip and make it clear there can be no room for complacency with regard to pairing. I want 100 per cent commitment from deputies from Tuesday to Thursday. We also need greater personal responsibility from deputies."
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern also spoke briefly at last night's meeting and thanked members of the party for their support during last week's no-confidence motion.According to TDs present at the meeting, Mr Ahern said the party would need to be on its guard in order to deal with the threat posed by the Opposition.
