www.fiannafail.ie

THE first thing you see on the Fianna Fail site, before any images or texts have loaded, is a wall of green. The Internet has allowed the Republican Party to, well, play the green card with ease. There are those who say that FF doesn't have a philosophy, but the site proves them wrong - it has a whole section on philosophy. The history section is good, and divided into the de Valera years, the Lemass, Lynch and Haughey years and the Reynolds and Ahern years.

www.finegael.ie

THE Fine Gael site has a better designed and more attractive looking homepage; so much so in fact, that the party could easily adopt the old Avis car-rental slogan: "We're number 2, so we try harder." The news and press releases are very up-to-date, a good sign that an organisation is taking new media seriously. The keyword search wasn't working when I last visited the site, but that could be a temporary glitch. The history section could do a lot better.

www.labour.ie

LABOUR'S site has a good (though brief) history section, which is as you would expect from the State's oldest political party. Hopefully it will be expanded upon. An interesting section is where the party's principles of freedom, equality, community and democracy are explained. Having a short CV and contact details for each TDs, senator and MEP is a good idea. It could do with a homepage re-design, but overall there is a lot happening here.

progressivedemocrats.ie

THE PDs also have a CV section for each of their TDs and senators - a task that gets easier for them with each passing election and defection. The history section benefits from the fact that they've only been around since 1985, but could still do with more detail. The homepage has a very large link to an impressively long "Achievements in Government" section, though not everyone will agree that everything on the list necessarily constitutes an achievement.

www.greenparty.ie

THIS Green's site is divided into two sections: the first has information on the party's elected representatives in the Dail, what they stand for etc. The second is called the Green Party Library and contains archival information on campaigns, more detailed policy information and a bibliography for further reading. The history section is short and poorly designed and the link to MEP Patricia McKenna was not working when last checked. More work to be done here.