Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I must travel throughout the country now and people in my constituency tell me they have not seen me around. The time I spend sitting at Cabinet meetings from 9.30 a.m. or 10.00 a.m. until 1 p.m. or 1.30 p.m. is time I normally would have spent in the constituency. How does one win? I pose this question to the Senators because they are all politicians, some of whom have been practising the art for a long time.

Any move towards six or seven-seat constituencies would give rise to difficulties sustaining these links. This will be the real balancing act. In addition, the proposed amendment would not allow a constituency commission to consider the option of three seat constituencies. This would not assist the commission to meet its terms of reference. In particular, it would be impossible for the commission to maintain continuity in any of the 17 existing three-seat constituencies, despite that the census results may not require any boundary changes to be made.

Senator Power contends that larger constituencies would assist women candidates to be selected. I am not sure this would be the case. It is a quantum leap. There is no statistical evidence to back it up. The Government is being proactive in this regard. Notwithstanding what my late mother would have argued, everybody gets through based on ability and competence. All of the problems Senator Bacik mentioned regarding the five Cs exist but when I started off one could have argued many issues would have meant I would not have got through. I accept we have moved on and it is a different era.

On 8 June, the Minister, Deputy Hogan, published the general scheme of the electoral (amendment) (political funding) Bill 2011 which includes a measure to encourage and improve gender balance among candidates of political parties in general elections. The general scheme includes provision for a requirement that to qualify for full State funding under Part III of the Electoral Act 1997 a qualified political party must have at least 30% female candidates and at least 30% male candidates at the next general election. This will increase to 40% after seven years. Half of every payment to a qualified political party is to be made contingent on meeting these new requirements. Only 15% of candidates in the recent general election were women so a 30% threshold would double the number. The new legislative provisions are a proportional response to address a significant challenge in Ireland's democratic system, which is to increase the number of women in politics. The approach of the political funding legislation is practical and sound and it is intended to proceed in this manner rather than amend the terms of reference of the constituency commission as suggested by Senator Power. Overall, I am satisfied the present requirement of three, four or five seat constituencies strikes the correct balance. I do not support the amendments being proposed and ask Senators to consider not pressing them.