An Independent TD has warned that the rigidity of the political party whip system in Ireland could lead to fascism.

Peter Mathews, formerly of Fine Gael, said there had been a “terrible trail of destruction, loss of life and mutilation” in countries across Europe because they lacked a constitutional provision allowing free votes on issues of conscience.

He was speaking in the Dáil as he introduced his private member’s Bill, which seeks to include in the Constitution a provision that would allow TDs and Senators vote with their conscience, rather than on the party position.

The 34th Amendment of the Constitution (Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas) Bill seeks to include wording of the basic law of the Federal Republic of Germany - that members of the Oireachtas "shall be representatives of the whole people not bound by orders or institutions and responsible only to their conscience".

‘Alarm bells’

Mr Mathews said “the red lights are flashing and the alarm bells are ringing” on the dangerous rigidity of the whip system. It was what happened “when infiltration of democracy occurred in Germany in the 1930s”.

He said that in Ireland, the problems started with the recapitalisation of the banks. The level of inequality in the country “is only happening because the Government has a large majority and is failing to allow backbenchers to express their view”.

But rejecting the Bill, Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe said Ireland's Constitution "clearly and in a robust fashion" addressed Mr Mathew's concerns that Oireachtas members be protected "from the influence of extreme and perhaps undemocratic outside forces".

He added that “a sentence from the basic law of the Federal Republic of Germany cannot be transplanted into the Irish Constitution without any attempt to recognise the very different political, social and institutional structures that exist in Ireland”.

Irish Constitution

He said the Irish Constitution was adopted at a time when extremist politics were on the march across mainland Europe. Mr Kehoe added that everyone, including Oireachtas members, had constitutional rights of expression and association and the proposed amendment “could impact on these rights and the wider implications of this would be negative for our parliamentary system and the people of Ireland”.

Mr Kehoe said the whip system had Irish roots through Charles Stewart Parnell, who turned a group of Irish MPs in the House of Commons into a party under a pledge to “sit, act and vote together”.

He described the whip system as voluntary, and party members had voted against their own party’s position on a number of issues. “Every elected Oireachtas member is free to vote whichever way he or she wants.”

The vast majority of the electorate voted for political parties, “perhaps they felt that non-party candidates do not provide the basis for stable government”.

But Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan described the whip system as being “almost like a herd mentality”, and a major disadvantage was that it “polarises opinion”. She said TDs had to vote a certain way “and there is no outlet for individual thinking or independent thought”.

Fianna Fáil’s Séamus Kirk said his party supported relaxing the whip on “specific matters of conscience”, but enshrining the change in the Constitution might erode the whip system in other areas, “damaging the effectiveness and independence of the Oireachtas”.

Sinn Féin whip Aengus Ó Snodaigh, who supported the whip system, compared it to a football team. “If you’re on the football team and playing a match, you can’t pick up the ball, run the other way and score a goal against your team. You will suffer consequences.”

Independent Socialist Clare Daly believed the whip system’s only purpose was to serve the status quo. It was “a mechanism to immunise those in power from the pressure of people outside this House”.

Independent TD Mick Wallace said the German system was worth noting because it allowed parties to adopt a joint position on issues while also permitting individual MPs the right to deviate from the party line without fear of expulsion from the party.

‘Issue of conscience’

He suggested a bigger issue was the question of what was an issue of conscience. “Unfortunately in Ireland the term ‘issue of conscience’ is used more often than not in the context of sexual and reproductive rights.”

Independent TD Catherine Murphy said “the notion that one has to be religious to have a conscience is nonsense”. She said she had a conscience about issues like poverty, people being on trolleys in hospitals and the way services are managed.

She pointed out that the Constitution at present “only insists on two things regarding the stability of a government, and those are that if it falls on a money Bill or a vote of confidence, it will force a general election”.

The Bill will be voted on when the Dáil resumes on Tuesday.