Political blogging is "like canvassing in a bar", Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe told a conference on Saturday. "Compared to knocking on doors, there's a stronger emotional response and you're more free to express yourself," he said.
Mr Cuffe was speaking at Blogging the Election, a conference organised by the group-blog Irish Election and held at the Digital Hub, Dublin.
He told The Irish Times that blogging was an important new communications tool for politicians which existed outside the normal party infrastructure. "Ignore blogging at your peril," he said. "I'm sure it will have an impact on the next election."
Labour councillor for Meath East Dominic Hannigan spoke about the difficulties of moderating the "emotional response" of readers who participated in the comments section of his blog.
Finding a balance between genuine criticism and attempts to "spike" the blog was difficult, he said during a round-table discussion with Mr Cuffe and Letterkenny councillor Damien Blake, but an open comments section allowed conversation to continue after he had "left the room".
Mr Blake told participants to have a "healthy and democratic" impact on the upcoming general election by "putting the facts online" about "issues in your own back garden". He said local media organisations rarely sought "alternative" views and that blogs could provide these.
He concluded with a challenge: "Tell your local politician to get a blog, get a website and sort themselves out."
The conference also heard from Simon McGarr of McGarr solicitors, who outlined the many ways bloggers could fall foul of Irish libel laws.
Pointing out that a libel judgment could cost as much as an average house in Dublin, he warned bloggers to stick to writing about what "can be proven to be true".
Antóin Ó Lachtain from lobby group Digital Rights Ireland, provided some examples of how bloggers could use the Freedom of Information Act to bring attention to government decisions that mainstream media organisations might only treat superficially.
The conference concluded with fringe sessions, the most popular of which was titled Bringing Down the Government.
A blog is a frequently updated online journal, often incorporating images or sound files, that allows its author to reach an audience without having to go through traditional media.
Political blogs include: www.cuffestreet.blogspot.com, dominichannigan.blogspot.com, www.damienblake.com and www.irishelection.com