Joe Behan (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

At the outset I take the opportunity to thank the staff of the Oireachtas Library and research service whose work is vital to the quality of debate in the Dáil and Seanad Chambers. I have used the special debate packs on a number of occasions to date and I have found them to be an excellent aid to preparation and research prior to making a contribution to a debate such as this. I have read all of the debate pack regarding this vital legislation and I have yet again found it to contain all the essential background material necessary to achieve a broad understanding of the Bill as well as being informative as to the views of interested parties within and outside the House.

I will of course be supporting the passage of the Electoral (Amendment) Bill through this Chamber as it reflects the decision of the Government to implement the recommendations of the Constituency Commission report of 2007 as well as including other legislative amendments reflecting court decisions regarding electoral law. However, I will also be taking up the invitation of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government as quoted by the Irish Examiner on 24 October 2007 when he said: "Deputies from all sides of the House will no doubt have views on specific recommendations and they will have the opportunity to raise them during debate on the legislation."

I welcome the provision in the Bill to comply with the High Court judgment of June 2007 allowing for the establishment of future constituency commissions on publication by the CSO of preliminary census results and allowing for the finalisation of the commission's work after the CSO final report is published. I note this allows much work to be done in a timely manner while ensuring final decisions are made on the final figures.

I also welcome the relaxation of the onerous assent requirements on non-party candidates in future local and European Parliament elections. I also welcome the reasonable deposit rates set out for local and European Parliament candidates in lieu of obtaining assents. I believe passionately that democracy is a precious gift bequeathed to us by our forefathers and it is essential the barriers to any citizen of this State wishing to stand for election should be so small as to be invisible. I would quibble with the provision to withhold the deposit from candidates who receive less than 25% of a quota, but I still believe the basic deposit required is achievable for all who wish to stand.

Those are elements of the Bill which I praise. I turn to some elements of the proposed legislation with which I have some difficulty or to put it more accurately with the Constituency Commission report and its implications for democracy. I cannot understand why the commission did not increase the total number of Members of Dáil Éireann from the present total of 166 to the number to which it could have statutorily agreed which is 168. The number of 166 has been set since 1980 — 28 years ago. Our population as measured at that time was 3,368,217. Our population according to the 2006 census was 4,239,848, an increase of more than 25%. It is unbelievable that the commission did not see fit to decide that the people were entitled to the maximum allowable number of Dáil Deputies given such an increase in population. What is even more astounding is the lack of comment on this failure across the political spectrum. I do not know whether this is because of political correctness or whether it is because the media are constantly critical of Members of this House right across party lines and it might have been seen as an attempt to increase the number of these "useless" Deputies. It is amazing that we as a body did not respond more vigorously to what I regard as a very basic failure of the commission to allow two additional Deputies when we have a 25% increase in the population. This failure is one of the most significant of all in this commission report and I remain completely unconvinced by the weak justification offered for this failure.

I agree with many Members of this House, some of whom have already spoken, in my exasperation at the continuing trampling by the Constituency Commission across county boundaries. The people of more and more counties must acclimatise to electoral boundaries which make absolutely no geographical or administrative sense. Given that the county has been the administrative unit of our country since the foundation of the State I cannot understand how this tradition can be ignored so fundamentally every time a new Constituency Commission report is prepared. It is high time that we, as elected Members of this body, take this matter extremely seriously.

I will shortly personalise the matter to my constituency. However, Members should first consider the much-quoted example of County Leitrim. It would be easy for natives of County Leitrim to believe that this Constituency Commission is out to get them because not alone has the county been split in two but the division in population decided by the commission is such that it is impossible for Leitrim to elect a Deputy of its own. This state of affairs is completely unacceptable. I have nothing to gain from any change regarding Leitrim but it is not right and should be addressed as a matter of urgency. It is important to note that the largest number of submissions on any issue received by the commission was made on behalf of people living in Leitrim who wanted to include all of County Leitrim in one constituency. However, the commission stated it was not possible to find a solution that met the concerns in the submissions and had no undesirable impact on the configuration of other constituencies. So the message the people of Leitrim can take from that is that it is acceptable to have decisions undesirable to Leitrim people but not to anyone else. The people of Leitrim are being classed by this commission as second-class citizens which is wrong. It is unacceptable to me and it should be unacceptable to all of us as democrats. My constituency suffers from this geographically nonsensical approach by the Constituency Commission. Happy and willing as I am to serve the needs of my constituents from east Carlow — Rathvilly, Hacketstown and Clonmore — they are not well served where their local county administration is in County Carlow but their TDs are in County Wicklow. It is madness and it must change.

I pay tribute to the Taoiseach who, before the summer, floated an idea in the Chamber that perhaps members of all parties could get together to discuss the implications of this report to see if the lack of respect for county boundaries could be addressed. It is regrettable that the idea was seized on as an effort to interfere with the impartial and independent process set up by the commission. What happened was that the Government said it would allow the report to go through to the Dáil Members. We, as Members, have a responsibility to try to address this issue and, if necessary, change the law and the Constitution to ensure that all future constituencies, whether single or double county, are coterminous with county boundaries. The people who live in disenfranchised counties, such as Leitrim, deserve no less. Furthermore, if this matter was to put to a vote of the people it would be resoundingly supported.

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