Dáil Éireann begins its formal business at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesdays. Nothing in the Dáil's own timetable dictates that this should be so. Instead, it is necessary because most TDs spend Mondays attending council meetings.
From mid-2004, the need for this tardy start will be gone. By then, all TDs will be required to give up their council seats assuming, that is, that Fine Gael TD Mr Michael Ring's threatened legal challenge comes to naught.
Currently, 102 of the 29th Dáil sit on local bodies, in addition to 27 of their colleagues in the Upper House, making sure that not a medical card application is missed, nor a planning permission mislaid.
Long opposed, the dual mandate ban went past the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party on Wednesday with barely a whimper. Left without Jackie Healy-Rae's clout, the Fianna Fáil TDs bowed to the inevitable.
However, they are not finished yet. Environment Minister Mr Martin Cullen has promised arrangements to ensure TDs are kept informed by local councils of events in their constituencies. The change, says Mr Cullen, will mean that TDs can fulfil their proper role as national legislators.
It would be wonderful if it were so, but past and present experience, sadly, hardly inspires hope.
Backbenchers of all hues, and particularly Government backbenchers, are ignored by the Cabinet of the day. If they put forward reasoned amendments to legislation, they rarely succeed in getting them accepted.
In an ideal world, TDs left without a council place would quickly realise they had lost their empire and not yet found a role, to borrow Dean Acheson's 1962 description of the United Kingdom.
Having put up with this lark for a few months they would then batter down the door of Mr Bertie Ahern to say: "Hang on here a minute, mate. We are not just voting fodder." The theory is flawless. Reality is a different matter.
So far, Fianna Fáil has promised faithfully that it intends to beef up the internal Parliamentary Party committees, so that backbenchers are given a more meaningful role.
However, this hardly addresses the real problem. Currently, the Dáil has 18 committees shadowing Cabinet briefs. Just a few are up to scratch. Journalists report on even fewer of them.
Even when they are given the chance to shine, the majority of TDs unerringly miss the bullseye.
Last week, Garda Commissioner Mr Pat Byrne appeared before the Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights Committee. Many people have serious concerns about the performance of the Garda Síochána.
The TDs are our tribunes. The Garda Commissioner should have been given an afternoon from hell.
Alas, no. Instead of asking simple, direct questions, each of our beloved representatives prattled on for 40-odd minutes before the Commissioner was brought in to bat.
By then, Mr Byrne was happily able to parry the few blows he faced.
Television bulletins contained a harmless clip of a joust between him and Fine Gael TD Mr John Deasy.
Yes, the few dozen TDs really interested in committee work have more than a point when they complain that the Government has offered the committees platitudes, rather than help.
But that is not the full story.
TDs fail miserably to make best use of what they have got. None of this requires them to be Brain of Britain. TDs could help themselves by asking a few simple questions before meetings.
What should the guy coming in to us today know? What do we need to learn? What will he try to hide? Can we agree a line of questioning so we don't repeat each other? How many of us need to speak?
Instead, they never seem to have a target in mind. They never, ever, co-operate. They all insist on speaking, even if they just drop by for five minutes. And they do so ignored, for the most part.
From next year, the Houses of the Oireachtas should have control of its own budget, rather than having to beg some Department of Finance official to sign dockets for everything bar the most trivial expenditure.
Under the plan, TDs would get research assistants. A great idea in theory. Properly backed by research, TDs could shine in committee work.
However, most TDs want the research workers based in their constituencies.
If they win out, what will happen? The extra staffer will simply add to the paper mountain generated by TDs in search of answers to constituency queries.
Often, these queries are asked of each TD in the constituency.
Certainly, extra researchers should be hired, although whether we need 166 of them is debatable. But they should be hired to work for the committees, not for the TDs themselves.
Such a course would offer the able TDs a chance to harry ministers, or witnesses, properly. It would expose the incompetent. Better gunned, committees would then become a real focal point of public interest. Anyone remember DIRT?