Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I will do my best to ensure that Deputy Broughan has a detailed canvas map, as I am aware that there are detailed changes to be made in his area. I will do my best to be accommodating to members in that regard.

I will outline the main provisions of the Bill. Section 2 provides that the number of Members of Dáil Éireann after the next dissolution will be 166. As I have said, that is the same number as at present, and it is the number recommended by the commission. Sections 3 and 4 provide that, after the next dissolution, the Members of Dáil Éireann will represent the 43 constituencies specified in the Schedule, as recommended by the commission. This represents a net increase of one in the number of constituencies compared with the existing constituency formation, which remains in force for the purpose of any by-elections up to the time of the next dissolution of the Dáil. Section 5 provides for the repeal of the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1998, which specifies the existing Dáil constituencies. The repeal will come into operation on the next dissolution of the Dáil.

The schedule contains the formal definition of the 43 constituencies, the main details of which I have already set out. In summary, it provides for the creation of five new constituencies, the replacement of four existing constituencies, changes to 23 constituencies and the retention of 15 existing constituencies. Overall, 12 five-seat constituencies, 13 four-seat constituencies and 18 three-seat constituencies are proposed.

I should deal with section 6 in some detail. I know from my conversations with Deputy O'Dowd that the section has caused some concerns. Section 6 addresses a technical issue that has been raised by the Standards in Public Office Commission in relation to the definition of election expenses for the purposes of the Electoral Act 1997. Paragraph 2 of the Schedule to that Act sets out certain items that are not to be regarded as election expenses for the purposes of the Act. Following the High Court and Supreme Court decisions on the Desmond Kelly case in 2002, section 33 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004 deleted from paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the 1997 Act the reference to services, facilities and so on provided out of public funds. The effect of that deletion is that, in accordance with the courts' rulings, such services are now reckonable for the purpose of making statements of election expenses to the Standards in Public Office Commission. However, that section 33 deletion was inadvertently drafted to remove a number of other items, which had not been at issue in the court cases, from paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the 1997 Act. These items are as follows. The first and most important is the litir um thoghchán service, the so-called free postage for candidates.

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