Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Following the publication of the 2002 census of population figures in July 2002, a constituency commission was established under Part II of the Electoral Act 1997 to make a report on the constituencies for the election of Members to the Dáil and European Parliament. To facilitate the holding of the European Parliament election next June, the commission dealt with European elections first and submitted its report on the European constituencies last October. As Deputies are aware, the commission recently furnished its report on Dáil constituencies and the consequential legislation will be before the House for debate later this year.

Three commissions have dealt with European constituencies in reports published in 1977, 1993 and 1998, respectively. The 1977 commission recommended that the representation of 15 MEPs be distributed as follows: three seats in Connacht-Ulster; four seats in Dublin; three seats in Leinster; and five seats in Munster. The 1993 commission recommended the transfer of a seat from the Munster to the Leinster constituency, while the report of the 1998 commission did not recommend any change in the formation of the four constituencies or the number of members to be elected in them.

There has, therefore, been no change in the constituencies or the number of members elected from them since the European Parliament elections in 1994. However, the protocol on the enlargement of the European Union and the declaration on the enlargement of the European Union in the Treaty of Nice provide that, in a European Union of 27 member states, Ireland will elect 12 MEPs.

The protocol made provision for the possibility that there may be fewer than 27 member states in the European Union in 2004 and allowed for a pro rata distribution of unallocated seats. As neither Bulgaria nor Romania will accede to the European Union in time for the 2004 European Parliament elections, it was decided to allocate their seats to the current member states and those candidate states which will accede in 2004. The European Council in Copenhagen in December 2002 confirmed that Ireland will elect 13 MEPs in the 2004 European Parliament elections. The formal legal basis for this level of representation is the accession treaty signed on 16 April 2003. Ireland's representation in the European Parliament was, therefore, reduced from its current level of 15 seats to 13 seats at the 2004 elections.

Apart from the limitation to 13 seats, the commission's terms of reference for the European constituencies were as follows: there shall be reasonable equality of representation as between constituencies; each constituency shall return three, four or five members; the breaching of county boundaries shall be avoided as far as practicable; each constituency shall be composed of contiguous areas; there shall be regard to geographic considerations, including significant physical features and the extent and density of population in each constituency; and, subject to these provisions, the Commission shall endeavour to maintain continuity with regard to the arrangement of constituencies.

The commission's role is advisory. The final determination of the constituencies for the European Parliament is a matter for the Oireachtas to prescribe in legislation. The Government accepted the commission's recommendations on the European Parliament constituencies.

Section 4 implements the recommendations of the constituency commission on the European Parliament constituencies. The changes involve a reduction of two seats in Irish representation from the 2004 elections and a reduction of one seat in each of the Leinster and Munster constituencies. County Clare is transferred from the Munster constituency to the Connacht-UIster constituency and no changes are made in the formation or numbers of members to be elected in the Dublin constituency. The names of the three other constituencies are changed to east, north-west and south.

Elections to the European Parliament are governed by the European Parliament Elections Acts 1992 to 2002, which provide for elections on the single transferable vote system in multi-member constituencies. The provision concerning the revision of constituencies is set out in section 15(2) of the European Parliament Elections Act 1997, which states: ". . . the Minister shall, having considered any report presented on statutory authority to each House of the Oireachtas recommending any alteration in the constituencies for which candidates shall be elected to the Parliament, and not later than the first day of December 2003 and at least once in every ten years thereafter, submit to the Oireachtas proposals for a review of the said constituencies."

If there is no major change in population before the 2009 elections, the European constituencies will require revision if Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union. In such circumstances, Irish representation will be reduced to 12 members. Section 6 of the Bill is a standard provision setting out the Short Title, collective citation and constitution of the Bill. I commend the Bill to the House.

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