Almost a third of the country’s TDs miss every vote in the Dáil and the
non-attendance of politicians at such votes is getting progressively worse.
An analysis by the Irish edition of The Times of the
voting records of the 173 TDs who have been elected during the lifetime of the
current Dáil shows 29 per cent on average are either absent or abstain from
each vote.
However, absentee rates from votes have increased steadily over the
course of the 31st Dáil rising from 22 per cent in 2011 to 39 per cent
this year.
Since March 2011, a total of 824 votes have been held in the Dáil on
issues ranging from important legislation to private member’s bills as well as
the suspension of TDs and procedural matters.
The traditional arrangements of past parliaments whereby Opposition TDs
offered a “pair” to facilitate ministers away on official State business
doesn’t exist in the current Dáil because of the size of the coalition’s
majority.
Sources across the political divide blame the Government’s large voting
majority for the falling attendance at Dáil votes by TDs from all political
parties.
“Quite simply a lot of TDs are totally taking the piss. They won’t
bother to show up when they know the government is unlikely to be defeated,”
said one senior Government source.
“There are one or two serial abusers of this practice. All TDs can claim
they have work to do elsewhere or need to be back in their constituencies but
some of them forget they were elected to vote. If a deputy doesn’t bother to
turn up for a Dáil vote, it’s a sign that they have no respect for parliament,”
the source added.
The Ceann Comhairle, Seán Barrett, said the government won most Dáil
divisions by a margin of 15-20 votes, even though the coalition has a working
majority of 34 votes.
Mr Barrettt, who oversees voting in the Dáil, admitted there was “no
sense of urgency” among current TDs to attend votes compared to previous
parliaments because they know the Government had a comfortable majority.
“Because of the size of the majority, the party whips are being more
liberal when it comes to getting TDs into the Dáil to vote,” Mr Barrett said.
As Ceann Comhairle Mr Barrett only gets to use a casting vote in the Dáil to
break a deadlock.
He believed it would become “inevitable” that certain days of the week
in future would be reserved for meetings of Oireachtas committees because of
the additional powers they have been given in the legislative process and in
order to avoid clashes with votes in the Dáil.
Unsurprisingly, Enda Kenny as Taoiseach and other Government ministers
have some of the highest non-attendance rates as they are absent from the Dáil
on government business for long periods. However, the Minister for Children,
James Reilly, has the best record of ministers who have been in the cabinet
since 2011, missing just 36 per cent of votes.
Illness accounts for the poor attendance rate of some TDs including
three deputies who died – Shane McEntee, Brian Lenihan and Nicky
McFadden.
TDs with high absentee rates include the Renua Ireland leader, Lucinda
Creighton, who has missed more than 580 Dáil votes – a figure in excess of 70
per cent.
Others who fail to vote on a regular basis include Independent TD for
Tipperary North, Michael Lowry who has also missed 70 per cent of all
votes over the past five years. Fianna Fáil’s Willie O’Dea and Labour’s Willie
Penrose have both missed 55 per cent of all votes.
Among Fine Gael backbenchers, Áine Collins and Ciarán Cannon had
below-average attendance rates at votes.
In 2015, several TDs including Socialist Party Leader, Joe Higgins and
Billy Timmins (Renua) have missed more than 80 per cent of votes.
The analysis reveals Ruairi Quinn has a better attendance at Dáil votes
when he was a member of the Cabinet than since he stood down as minister –
averaging a 61 per cent absentee rate during the lifetime of the Dáil but
missing 70 per cent of votes this year since he returned to the Labour back
benches. In contrast, his party colleague Pat Rabbitte has missed just 22 per
cent of votes in 2015 year since losing his ministry in a cabinet reshuffle
last year.
At the other end of the scale, the most diligent attendant at Dáil
divisions is Fine Gael’s Jerry Buttimer who has missed just 27 votes over the
past five years – just over 3 per cent of all votes..
Others with low absentee rates from voting are Sean Kyne of Fine Gael,
Sinn Fein’s Sandra McLellan and Labour’s Seán Kenny.
Among TDs who have missed less than 10 per cent of all Dáil votes are
Labour’s Robert Dowds and, Emmet Stagg, Sinn Fein’s Michael Colreavy,
Independent Finian McGrath and Fine Gael’s Joe Carey, Dan Neville, Bernard
Durkan, Noel Harrington, Paul Connaughton, and Patrick O’Donovan.
Among the main political parties, Sinn Féin had the best attendance record
with the party’s TDs missing less than 1 in 5 votes, while Fianna Fáil had the
worst absentee figures by failing to show up for more than a third of all
votes.
On a constituency basis, Tipperary North has the worst absentee rate
when the impact of the ceann comhairle’s role is excluded from the voting rate
of deputies in Dún Laoghaire. The best voting record among the 44 current
constituencies is by the four TDs for Kildare North.
The highest turnout for any Dáil vote was in relation to the Protection
of Life During Pregnancy Bill in July 2013 when just eight TDs failed to vote.
Analysis of the Oireachtas data has been done with the assistance
of webrobots.io
Reacting to the figures Lucinda Creighton defended her record as the Dail’s
second worst voter.
The Renua Ireland leader, who has missed an average of 70.5 per cent of
votes since her election in 2011, said she deliberately skips votes because her
party is not afforded the same speaking rights as other groups in parliament.
“I’m not surprised at all,” she said. “I was European Affairs minister
for two and a half years and was out of the country every week. In the Dáil
currently, I don’t vote on motions or indeed any debates where we as a group of
TDs are excluded from participation. My colleagues in Renua apply the same
policy.”
Parties with fewer than seven TDs do not have the same speaking rights
as larger groups in the Dail.
Ms Creighton’s party colleague Billy Timmins, the Wicklow TD, who has
missed an average of 47.5 per cent of votes, said: “Counting the number of
times a person votes each year is not a good measure of a TD’s work. A lot of
the votes that are called are gimmicks by the opposition to get attention when
they know they will not win,” he said.
Enda Kenny has missed the most votes over the past five years but as Taoiseach
he is not expected to be present in the Dail for all motions.
Willie O’Dea, the Fianna Fail TD for Limerick City, said he “couldn’t
believe” he had missed 70 per cent of the divisions called in the past year. As
one of only 20 Fianna Fail TDs, he said he has been under increasing pressure
in areas where there was no elected representative for the party.
“I have had queries flooding in from areas like Tipperary and Kerry. I
have to protect my seat. It is very difficult to be in the Dail and carry out
your constituency work at the same time; you have to be seen around the
constituency,” he said.
Willie Penrose, a former junior minister and Labour TD, said he simply
does not believe in voting on private members’ bills. “I do my own thing. If I
believe in an issue I will vote for it, but if it’s just opposition parties
trying to score points then I don’t bother.”
Mr Penrose, who missed an average of 54 per cent of votes, stressed that
he was ill for a short period of time in 2014.
As the politician with the best record, Jerry Buttimer, Cork South
Central TD, said he believes politicians best serve their voters when they
engage in both constituency work and legislating in the Dail.
“I think it is important that we attend the parliament, as that is what
we are elected to do. A voting record is not a complete barometer of what we
do, but I take the role seriously,” he said.
Finian McGrath, an independent TD for Dublin North Central, said: “I’m
concerned that a lot of the political parties don’t take the Dáil seriously
enough. This is why we’re constantly hearing about the need for Dáil reform.
Attendance for voting and participating in legislation should be of the utmost
importance to TDs, because that’s what they were elected to do.”
