Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Certainly not; quite the contrary. My amendments are self-explanatory. If the Minister of State would commit to entertaining them, it would be a good day for democracy, for smaller parties and for the system generally. When my party was larger, it was consistent in respect of the number of seats that should be returned from each constituency.

The issue of county boundaries and so forth was raised earlier. County boundaries are arbitrary. It happens to be how our local government system has been organised. In many ways, it has as much to do with affinity for who we follow in the GAA as with anything else. This should be about the efficient and proper democratic representation of people. County boundaries do not reflect the reality of where people are living or where their centres of interest are these days. We all look at things through the prism of own constituency. My constituency should be properly renamed Louth and east Meath or Louth and the Meath coast because it includes a significant part of east Meath, including south Drogheda, Laytown, Bettystown, Donacarney, Julianstown and so forth. Those areas are contiguous with County Louth and with the town of Drogheda, which is the largest town in the country that is not a city. That is where the centres of interest for people in east Meath are. There is little relationship with the centre of decision-making in County Meath, which is Navan, albeit there is strong representation from Meath county councillors in that area in the county council in Navan.

We must be conscious of that and, to be fair, successive boundary commissions have been. The idea of consistency over a period of elections is now hardwired into the work the electoral commission is going to do into the future. Deputy Ó Snodaigh is right. Parts of Dublin, in particular, have been taken in and out of constituencies. There is no affiliation with any particular Deputy, public representative or party. That is fair enough and that is for people to decide. However, people should have consistency of representation. That is important in terms of turnout and the health of our democracy more generally. Consistency is important. We should slay some sacred cows around constituency boundaries unless there are clear geographic barriers. The River Boyne was breached a number of years ago, not just in 1690 but after that on many occasions. The town of Drogheda and its constituency were extended. It makes sense. It is all about the proper representation of people and county boundaries should be secondary. I hope that is now hardwired into the work of the commission and will be, going forward.