“… The strength of the university representation does not come alone from the commitment given to the House by those elected, but principally from the fact that the ordinary members of their electoral college are given the right to vote. There is an electorate of 50,000 in the case of the University of Dublin and 100,000 in the case of the National University of Ireland. This means that during the election, instead of traipsing around the provinces sucking up to local councillors, the candidates have to subject themselves to the scrutiny of a large, alert and sometimes awkward group of voters who express a wide range of interests outside the narrow confines of partisan politics …” (more)
[David Norris, Irish Times, 7 May]