Sir, – Besides voting on the budget, there is no obvious reason why every single piece of government legislation, no matter how rushed or flawed, should be blindly supported by government TDs.
The suggestion that, without the whip system, TDs would not follow their party’s principles, or would be bombarded by lobbies, is incorrect. TDs are bombarded by lobbies anyway, and most victims of the whip system in recent times fell because they tried to uphold their party’s promises to the electorate, such as Róisín Shorthall or Lucinda Creighton.
As for political instability leading to economic instability, Belgium has often gone without a government for well over a year in recent times, with little economic ill-effect. And the relatively stable Fianna Fáil-led governments between 1997 and 2011 were responsible for leaving us in this mess. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS M CREAMER,
Ballinamore,
Co Leitrim.