Three probes into Vote Gate. Political Parties need to be made accountable for their voting behaviour – Tóibín
Responding to the Dáil Voting Scandal Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD stated:
“Any TD who is involved in voting on behalf of TD who is not in the Dáil or who votes a number of times on the same Bill should lose the party whip and be removed from their parliamentary party. We have politicians from practically all the large parties elbowing each other to take the high moral ground only for it to emerge that their own TDs have also broken the rules.
“Politicians are great at calling for Dáil reform, yet they have not reformed the behaviour of their own parties when it comes to Dáil votes. There are now three separate investigations into the voting scandal, yet parties, despite calling for reform have not taken meaningful steps to ensure their own TDs do not breach Dáil voting rules. Calls for reform of the political system ring hollow when large political parties haven’t even initiated reform of their own behaviour.
“No TD should be allowed to vote on behalf of another TD at all. There must also be a penalty such behaviour in future.”