A campaign has begun to ensure that Carlow has at least one representative in the Dáil after the forthcoming election.
Not all of the county's candidates, however, are enthusiastic about the objectives of the Elect Carlow Candidates Organisation (ECCO), which is funded by a coalition of local interests.
The group has been set up as a sub-committee of the Co Carlow Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and will be targeting people in the county who did not vote in the last election.
Mr Gerry Dunne, a spokesman for the group and the chamber's chief executive, said 11,000 of the county's 30,000-strong electorate did not vote in 1997, while 3,500 Carlow people had voted for Kilkenny-based candidates.
"We are the only county with no TD on the Government benches and after this election we run the risk of having no TD at all. It's a pretty bleak picture," he said. Yet there were a potential 2½ quotas in the county if everyone voted.
ECCO was non-party political and would not be telling people how to vote, beyond urging that they support Carlow candidates. It was not a pressure group, he said, but it would be advertising in local media and producing car stickers to get its message across.
Meetings of interested individuals would be held throughout the county in the coming weeks, he said, but public meetings would not be held. The group was made up of people from business, agricultural and other organisations.
Fianna Fáil's Carlow-based candidate, Mr M.J. Nolan, has already urged the Carlow electorate to support candidates from the county. He caused controversy within the party by urging supporters to give their second- and third-preference votes to other Carlow candidates, rather than his Kilkenny-based Fianna Fáil colleagues.
Other candidates, however, are taking a more traditional approach. Mr Fergal Browne of Fine Gael, will be seeking first-preference votes in parts of Kilkenny, in line with a vote-management strategy with Mr Phil Hogan TD.
He understood where ECCO was coming from but believed an "isolationist approach" could leave Carlow without a TD.
The Labour candidate, Mr Jim Townsend, said he would point out to ECCO that there was no point in voting for Carlow candidates solely on the basis they were from Carlow. The track record, work rate, individual merits and performance of each candidate had to be taken into account.
The Green Party's Ms Mary White said she was canvassing on a Carlow-Kilkenny basis and making no distinction between the two.