Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I will be sharing time with Deputy Ó Cuív. I appreciate the opportunity of speaking on this Bill. It is welcome that by-elections will be held within six months of a vacancy arising. Successive Governments have delayed the timing of by-elections.

The Minister stated the guidelines for the number of Deputies are between 164 and 168. This Bill will reduce that number and introduce spending limits for all elections, including the presidential election which will be held this year. The question arises of how to maintain county boundaries while reducing the number of Members. The west has been subjected to numerous breaches of county boundaries, often because of the constitutional preference for three, four and five seat constituencies. Some people in rural areas will argue that a five seat constituency is too large while others would prefer to see six seat constituencies. Perhaps that is why County Leitrim was divided on two different occasions. It would be interesting to see the result in a five or six seat constituency in a rural area. When Galway West was turned into a five seat constituency in advance of the 1977 general election, we were told it would improve our status. This was before County Mayo had five seats. I often wonder whether the people of Galway West regard having a five seat constituency as a matter of status.

I never fought an election in a five seat constituency and when I was first elected in a by-election in 1975, the constituency was known as north Galway and south Roscommon. We had already begun the habit of breaching county boundaries. The constituency commission had not been established then and decisions were made by the Minister. There were many allegations of gerrymandering, irrespective of who was in power. During the 1990s there was a provincial breach when Roscommon-Longford was created as a constituency. In more recent times, Offaly and Tipperary were created as a constituency.

There have been many breaches of county and provincial boundaries and people question why these things happen and ask whether there is a better way to deal with the matter. There has been much comment about having three, four and five-seat constituencies. Deputy Phelan spoke about having one-seat constituencies based on a system of proportional representation, which has its merits. It has often been said this would have carried the day in a referendum, rather than having the first past the post system which was rejected by the people. I am worried about counties such as Leitrim which has been split into two between counties Roscommon and Sligo. If we reduce the number of Deputies, counties such as Leitrim will lose representation more often.

Before we put the issue of abolishing the Seanad to the people, perhaps we might look at the idea of every county having a Senator. In that way, counties such as Leitrim would never suffer the absence of representation in the Oireachtas. The United States has two Senators per state, regardless of size or population.

Sometimes a by-election can take place the same day as local or European Parliament elections, for which there are good reasons. Cost is a factor. Some wonder why we do not have a co-option system, as we do to fill European Parliament and local authority vacancies. I do not agree with it, but it could be considered because I have heard people ask why we should close down the Dáil to go off and fight a by-election campaign.

Fianna Fáil has published a Bill on electoral spending limits and corporate donations, an issue on which I hope we will make progress. Having a maximum expenditure limit is a welcome aspect of this Bill, while reimbursement is a new element. In my early days in politics there was no question of receiving a refund. If there is to be reimbursement, it should happen more quickly than has been the case up to now. Sometimes a candidate or the party receives the money. If a candidate has to wait a long time, there is no point in saying there is reduced reimbursement. In the heat of a general election, common sense can sometimes go out the window when it comes to posters, canvass cards, the new phenomenon of painting cars, mobile phone technology, social networking and so on. It is important, therefore, that we do this in a reasonable and rational way. Some are great at putting up posters, but there is no point in seeing 20 or 30 posters at a roundabout when there are good vantage points in other parts of the country. It is sad that posters are still being defaced. On a more sinister level, they can be taken down and put up again seven days after polling. As a result, candidates can be fined €125 for each poster they never knew they had up. I hope the Minister will consider this issue because people are being fined, which is completely unfair.

I would like to finish by talking about the difference between an independent and a party-political candidate. I am often told that one of the reasons for reimbursement not being provided for is that candidates of political parties may have expenses grouped together which are then posted to the Standards in Public Office Commission. Perhaps the political parties have to do this for nationwide campaigns, but it is very unfair to candidates awaiting reimbursement. An independent candidate does not have to worry about this because there is no political party dealing with the commission. As Fianna Fáil candidates, we often allocate some money to the party to spend on a national campaign.

I agree with the Minister when he states he wants Ireland to be in line with countries such as New Zealand and Denmark which have one Member per 35,000 population. However, it does not immediately follow that because these countries have only one Chamber, we should do the same. We should look at the idea of having a stronger committee system before we do away with the Seanad. We should not vote to abolish it until we improve the committee system.

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