There are 166 TDs in the Dáil and most of them are applying for their jobs again. Philip McGuinness reckons we'd all be better off if there were two-thirds fewer.
Once again we find ourselves teetering on the brink of an election. The local and national media are falling over themselves in ever more outlandish attempts to forecast the result.
Parties frantically interpret opinion polls and fawn over good media performers in their search to find new candidates and issues that will ensure electability. Politicians cut a sorry figure as they trawl the dregs of the pork-barrel. Whether it be making representations on behalf of convicted rapists or the compensation of Eircom "victims", the list lengthens by the day.
It has been said many times that a general election is actually 42 individual elections. More like 42 by-elections. Is it not absurd that an opinion poll in one constituency carries more weight than an opinion poll nationwide? This fact alone confirms that disproportionality is built into our electoral system.
Many constituencies will continue to elect Independent TDs. It is extremely likely that more non-party TDs will be elected in 2002 than 1997.
We know that after the election, the Taoiseach will appoint many ministers from his or her party for purely geographic reasons in order to ensure that no part of the country feels slighted. God forbid that the electorate might expect TDs to become Ministers purely on the basis of ability.
When we vote, we do not vote in the same electoral context. We do not vote nationally: we vote in separate constituencies, where the local dynamic usually takes precedence over national issues. Is there not something unnerving in people's increasing reluctance to vote for national parties? Are we witnessing the break-up of the body politic, to be replaced by a disaggregated miasma of mé-féin localism?
We seem to be witnessing the death of ideas in politics. Who among current politicians has any coherent vision both of the individual in Irish society and of Ireland's place in the wider world?
Instead, witness the Dáil: practically empty most of the time while TDs attempt either to (a) get services (e.g. medical card, disabled parking permit) for people who are eligible for them anyway; or (b) get services for people who are not eligible for them.
Can we really be proud of an electoral and parliamentary system which discourages our politicians from being legislators and visionaries?
It is not surprising, then, that in the 1990s, Ireland had the second- lowest average general election turnout (67.2 per cent) in the European Union. Given the low turnout for the Nice Treaty referendum, it is unlikely that this average figure will be surpassed, even though it is five years since the last general election.
When one out of three doesn't exercise their right to influence how the country is run, this should be a matter of intense concern to those who do vote. The recent French first-round presidential election saw a turnout of 73 per cent and this has caused huge comment in France. We will be extremely lucky to reach 65 per cent this time round.
It is arguable that the dynamic of general elections in the Republic actually turns people off voting. It is true that our electoral system is a fascinating one.
However, Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver and Peter Mair state in their book, Representative Government in Modern Europe (p.322), that of 19 western and central European countries in the 1990s, Ireland's elections had the fifth-worst disproportionality figure.
Having lots of small constituencies penalises parties who score low percentages over a wide geographic area, and rewards Independents who are strong in only one contest. Multi-seat constituencies divert the electoral dynamic away from the national towards the local.
We need an electoral dynamic that will focus the disillusioned voters' attention on national issues, party policies, ideas and idealism. One solution to the continuing decline of national politics is to have just one constituency: the entire State.
The electorate then votes for parties or affiliations of individuals standing nationally.
Thus a voter in Louth may vote for Jackie Healy-Rae if he/she wishes, provided Mr Healy-Rae is in a nationwide alliance of other candidates. Seats are then shared out on strict proportionality: if Fianna Fáil gains 43.4 per cent of the vote, it would get 43.4 per cent of the seats in Dáil Éireann.
Some might argue that the above system would destroy the blood-sport that is election count night in multi-member constituencies. Perhaps that is no harm.
If our legislators are obliged to attend every funeral in their constituency to avoid losing their Dáil seat, they surely cannot be effective legislators. Legislation is what the Dáil should be for.
Having said the above, there should still be room for the influence of the local. What about reforming the Seanad to fill this need? The Seanad as it stands has absolutely no direct mandate from the people. Perhaps the current multi-member PR-STV constituencies could elect senators?
If we could establish a purely legislatory ambience in Dáil Éireann, we would not need as many deputies as we currently have. If the number of TDs were cut to 50, this would give us a threshold of 2 per cent for any party or affiliation of individuals to get elected to the reformed Dáil.
The advantage of some such threshold is that it encourages State-wide political campaigning and works against localism.
Dr Philip McGuinness is a lecturer at Dundalk Institute of Technology and maintains the institute's Electoral Research Unit website:
www.dkit.ie/dkitweb/research/ eru/eru2.html