Politicians fail to back voting system change

FEWER than one third of the 226 members of the Oireachtas have responded to Mr Noel Dempsey's "personal crusade" to change the electoral system to the Dail.

An overwhelming majority of those 69 TDs and senators would favour a change from multi seat to single seat constituencies, retaining the present system of proportional representation. And 47 of the 69 indicated they would be interested in joining an ad hoc all party committee to examine the electoral system.

These are the main findings of a questionnaire sent by Mr Dempsey, Fianna Fail's spokesman on the Environment, to all 166 TDs and 60 senators in the past few weeks. In the questionnaire, he outlined a proposal to change from the multi seat to single seat constituencies, to retain the single transferable vote and to introduce an element of a list system to ensure proportionality.

Though this was Mr Dempsey's preferred electoral system, the questionnaire left it open to Oireachtas members to consider their own changes at a later stage. The three essential questions posed by Mr Dempsey were:

. Would you favour a change in the electoral system to single seat constituencies?

. Do you agree that an ad hoc all party committee should examine this matter?

. Would you be interested in joining such a committee?

Of the 69 members who responded, 45 TDs were in favour of changing the electoral system while eight TDs were against.

Thirteen of the State's 60 senators were in favour, while three were against.

Taking a party breakdown of the response, 35 members of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party, including TDs and senators, opted for change; four were against. Some 15 Fine Gael members favoured a change; two were opposed.

The general secretary of the Labour Party, Mr Ray Kavanagh, wrote a letter to Mr Dempsey explaining that it was party policy to retain the most democratic and proportional system that we had. Two TDs and one senator sent individual responses, however, favouring change and one senator opted for the retention of the present system.

From the Progressive Democrats, two TDs responded that they would favour a change in the electoral system. The two responses from Democratic Left were opposed to Mr Dempsey's proposal.

Five Independents responded. Three senators were in favour of change while one TD and one senator were against.

The poor response to the questionnaire, notwithstanding that Mr Dempsey's initiative could have been wrongly perceived to be party based, would signal that the current electoral system will remain long after this year's general election. The results could not be interpreted as a mandate for setting up a Dail committee to examine the electoral system.