Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party have called for an all-party Oireachtas committee to examine growing voter abstention after Labour won the Dublin South Central by-election in the lowest poll in the history of the State.
Dr Mary Upton of the Labour Party yesterday comfortably won the contest, caused by the death last February of her brother, Dr Pat Upton.
However, just 28.18 per cent of voters in the constituency went to the polls, breaking the previous low turnout record for a Dail election which had existed since a 1945 by-election, which was not even contested by Fine Gael.
Cllr Michael Mulcahy of Fianna Fail topped the poll on the first count with 30 per cent of the vote, with Dr Upton coming a close second with 28 per cent.
However, transfers from lower-placed candidates put Dr Upton ahead of Mr Mulcahy, and the final transfer of the 20 per cent vote won by Fine Gael's Cllr Catherine Byrne gave Dr Upton 10,274 votes, putting her comfortably ahead of Mr Mulcahy, who finished on 7,901.
Labour's vote, boosted by the support of the former Democratic Left TD, Mr Eric Byrne, and by a sympathy factor for the Upton family following Pat Upton's sudden death, rose by 7.3 percentage points over the combined Labour-DL total for 1997.
Fianna Fail's vote fell by 4.3 percentage points on 1997, and Fine Gael's by 4.88 percentage points. Sinn Fein saw a significant increase in its vote, winning 8.3 per cent, compared to 4.5 per cent in the 1997 general election.
The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said last night that the dramatically low turnout was "part of a pattern that has shown a decline in voter turnout in virtually all recent elections.
"It is something that politicians must address if public confidence in the democratic process is not to be further eroded," he said.
He would like to see an all-party Oireachtas committee established to come up with firm proposals within months for measures to reverse the trend of declining voter turnout.
Hailing Dr Upton's victory, Mr Quinn said that if the result was repeated across Dublin in the next general election "it would reap a great harvest of seats for Labour, while Fianna Fail would lose many of the seats it now holds in the greater Dublin area."
Fine Gael's director of elections in Dublin South Central, Mr Brian Hayes TD, also called for an all-party committee, saying the turnout was very disappointing.
"It is time that politicians began to formulate our thinking on this issue", he said, adding that an all-party committee would be a good way to do this.