Sir, - If one were to judge by Garret FitzGerald's article in your edition of September 9th, one would conclude that the multi-seat constituency was the most important problem confronting our electoral system. A much more important issue is the method of funding political parties. If we have learned anything from recent revelations it is that the present method of funding parties is eminently corruptible and should be changed.
Notwithstanding the restrictions incorporated in the current legislation governing this area, the way in which a small number of very rich people, some of whom may be tax exiles, can manipulate the political system is not in the interests of democracy. Yet this issue has failed to receive enough attention from either the political system itself or from the various political commentators.
Instead we have people such as Garret FitzGerald proposing the abolition of the multi-seat constituency and the substitution of a list system.
This proposal, if implemented, would in my opinion disempower ordinary voters and give even more power to the party apparatchiks and their monied backers in deciding who represents us. It would also render the political system even more corruptible and seem even less relevant to ordinary people. - Yours, etc.,
A. Leavy, Shielmartin Drive, Sutton, Dublin 13.