Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I have heard disappointment expressed by other speakers that the boundary commission has chosen not to suggest an increase in membership of the Dáil by a further two Members. The constitutional provision suggests there should be a Member of the Dáil for every 20,000 to 30,000 of the population. It could have been just as in order for the boundary commission to suggest the 30,000 figure be applied which would mean a Dáil of 110 Members. While many Members would be fairly horrified at such a proposal I suspect many people outside this House would think it a very agreeable proposition. Larger membership of the Dáil would allow for a degree of proportionality that would not otherwise exist in terms of the representation of smaller parties and Independent Members. This is more difficult to achieve with a smaller Dáil.

Membership has risen from 138 to 147 to 166, reflecting the changes in population. Our system of proportional representation, which we only share with Malta, brings about a fair but not a pure degree of proportionality. Smaller parties and Independent Members still have a smaller representation in this House than their votes would indicate. The larger parties are given a bounce from the transfer of votes to which their first preference votes do not entitle them.

The last election was probably the first time when a fair degree of balance was achieved between the proportion of votes and the proportion of seats in any given Dáil.

The commission's recommendations have been largely met with approval in the House. A number of issues have caused distress in certain parts of the country. There is an identification with the county system but this system is not particularly native to the country, having been introduced by the British colonial administration. The identification with the county system has developed in the past centuries.

Other political systems identify their constituencies by region or by a key urban centre. It could be that in the future, we may move away from the county-based system of constituencies towards a system based on key urban centres. For instance, Deputy Catherine Murphy may not be representing Kildare North but rather Leixlip, depending on how such a constituency might be titled.

The terms of reference of the commission stipulated that it remain within three, four or five-seater constituencies. Dáil elections in the past have been held in nine, eight and seven-seater constituencies. Such constituencies provided greater proportionality. This Bill is disappointing in that it increases the number of three-seater constituencies. They benefit the larger parties to the detriment of smaller parties and Independents and are detrimental to the voters. I hope the terms of reference for the next boundary commission will specify a preponderance of five-seater constituencies and consideration should be given to constituencies of even bigger seat numbers to allow for better representation. The greater Dublin area would be better and more proportionately represented if these criteria were applied.

The most disappointing aspect of this Bill has nothing to do with the boundary commission. It is the custom in the United States Congress to tack a rider dealing with a pay increase for its members onto a Bill dealing with horse riding, for instance. Likewise the Government has decided that as well as dealing with electoral boundaries, constituencies and the number of representatives, consideration in this Bill should be given to extending the allowed expenses for election candidates. Many of us consider those expenses are far too generous. In the last general election I spent half of what was allowed in my constituency and I had spent twice as much as I had ever spent in any previous election campaign.

It is one of the richest ironies of Irish political life that political parties and politicians aim to convince voters that somehow the best and most responsible people to run our society and economy over a period of four to five years are those who are prepared to be the most wasteful of expenses when getting themselves elected. This is a horrible message to send out as a measure of the quality of democracy in this country. I hope this aspect of the Bill will be strongly challenged on Committee Stage and will be amended, not that I expect the Government parties to be amenable to amending that provision. I do not predict any suggested changes from either side of the House in terms of the boundary commission. The Government should take notice that it is a deceit and a tacky practice to insert in this Bill an aspect of electoral law that has nothing to do with the findings of the boundary commission and on which it should be challenged.

Significant changes have affected my constituency. This Bill will afford me the opportunity to vote for myself in the next election. The electoral boundaries in Cork city have been divided in an arbitrary manner for the past number of elections. Those familiar with the geography of Cork city will know that I live in one of the most southerly parts of Cork city yet for electoral purposes it has been deemed to be in Cork North-Central for the past few elections. I welcome the decision to use the north channel of the River Lee as a natural boundary. This will help those of us who represent the city on a type of flow-over basis to do so better in future electoral contests. The upshot of this, however, is that a major urban area is being moved to another constituency. The Minister of State's colleague at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, will be either the beneficiary or victim of this in that his base of Ballincollig will move to the constituency of Cork North-West. The character of this constituency will be changed dramatically from largely rural and conservative to one which will be very mixed and containing a major urban centre.

These changes put an onus on those of us representing the constituencies that will be most affected in that we have a mandate to represent the constituency for which we were elected in the Dáil election of 2002. However, we also have an expectation to represent the areas that will be newly part of our constituencies at the time of the next general election. The constituency I will seek to represent, for example, is a type of Venn diagram of the old and the new, possibly representing some 140,000 people and upwards of 70,000 voters. I do not what know whether this can be catered for in some way by the Government but some Government Members will be in a similar position.

This debate affords us the opportunity to put these concerns on record for voters. As my colleague, Deputy Cuffe, said, the Green Party supports the principle and recommendations of the constituency boundaries commission. However, we will argue against the amendments to increase allowable expenses, which we consider utterly unnecessary, on Committee Stage.

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