John Downing: Secret vote makes life harder for Micheál Martin and ...

Micheál Martin and Simon Harris can be forgiven if they don’t send their predecessor Enda Kenny a Christmas card this year.

The important procedural change to electing a ceann comhairle, via a secret ballot of every TD, was one of Kenny’s last acts as taoiseach in January 2016. The Fine Gael leader, who suffered heavy election losses just weeks later, changed the long-standing practice whereby the taoiseach effectively appointed the Dáil chairman, a move then only nominally rubber-­stamped by a public vote of TDs.