Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No, I am pointing to what was done with Laois-Offaly. It was separated into two three-seat constituencies. I know the reason is the 30,000 limit and so forth. County Laois now has a part of south Kildare with it. There are now two three-seat constituencies. We should try to have similar sized constituencies throughout the State, in so far as we can do that. It is very arbitrary that a constituency should suddenly go from five seats to three seats. There is also the situation with the Sligo-Leitrim-Cavan-and wherever else constituency. There are four counties included in that constituency.

That does not sit right.

There is also the issue of how the local authority boundaries link in with Dáil constituencies. It may not always be possible to tie the two together and to base Dáil constituency boundaries on local authority ones but we should try to do so as much as possible. People elected to the new constituency covering Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and Donegal will have to deal with four joint policing committees, four county managers, four sets of lobby groups at local authority level and four sets of local councillors. Unless they fly around by helicopter, it will be very difficult for them to represent that constituency properly. In so far as we can, we should try to watch the county boundaries, although it will not always be possible, and local authority electoral areas.

We should try to have similar sized constituencies and have five seat or six seat constituencies. The Minister would not argue with that the next time around because it would suit his party and it would probably suit us. I would not mind about Fine Gael, it would have three seat constituencies if it had its way.