Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

We have devoted a great deal of time to Second Stage which shows that politicians love to talk about the mechanics of politics. It is right that we should discuss the make-up of our constituencies but I hope we do not neglect the other more important issues of the day in this House.

This Bill is of great interest to me in two respects, in my role as a Deputy representing Dublin North-Central and also a chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government. My constituency is set to lose a seat if this Bill is passed as it stands. Although I deeply regret the fact that the people of Dublin North-Central will be forced to relinquish a public representative as the number of seats in the constituency is reduced from four to three, I am happy in the knowledge that this will happen as the result of clear, methodical and pragmatic analysis.

Dublin North-Central has a long history of boundary changes and adjustments in the number of its seats. Since it was established in 1947, Dublin North-Central has lost or gained a seat three times, switching from three to four seats at each revision. My constituents have accepted these alternations given that they were fair and justified. I know they will agree to the amendments currently proposed. The changes which are to be enacted stem from the advice given by an impartial panel and are necessary, in particular, because of the nature of our democracy.

This Bill has been attacked by Members of the House as being "flawed and undemocratic". I refer to comments made by Deputy Finian McGrath when speaking on Second Stage in the House on 27 April 2005. The Deputy also said the Bill shows a "lack of respect for citizens". I argue that the case is precisely the opposite. The method of election here, of which all Members present are well aware, is proportional representation. This means that any election result is directly related to the size of the population. Therefore, to keep the system as democratic as possible, the Government must take responsive action, having regard to population changes.

The Electoral Commission stated its intention to give particular attention to those constituencies "with variances exceeding 5% from national average representation". As it stands, the percentage variance from the national average representation in Dublin North-Central is minus 11.89%. This Bill will address this huge disparity by bringing it to within 4% and will also allow bordering constituencies to be brought further into line with the national average such that Dublin North-Central, Dublin North-East and Dublin North-West — I note the presence of one of the Deputies respecting the later constituency, the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern — will be well within 1% of the average.

The knock-on effect of this is that other parts of the country will also benefit from revision and the net result will be a more balanced democracy. We cannot ignore the importance of this. It is imperative that we have a fluid political system that is open to such change which is now being facilitated by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in this Bill. If we did not allow for such change, and welcome it, then the system would become static and we would be justified in labelling it undemocratic for it would not successfully reflect the wishes of the population as intended. To ignore population change is to pave the way forward for an unbalanced degree of influence on the part of the electors and, at the extreme end of the scale, the development of something like the infamous "rotten borough", a term loaded with notions of misconduct and one which, thankfully, has never been associated with this State.

Dublin North-Central has been a four seat constituency since 1980. Much has changed in the past 25 years and notably it is one of only three constituencies in the country to have lost population since the 1996 census. I welcome the commission's recommendation to alter the boundaries of the constituency accordingly.

It is interesting to study what is happening in Dublin North-Central. Many Members present would be surprised to learn that the population of a Dublin constituency quite close to the River Liffey is declining. Many elderly people live in many estates in the constituency. Young people from the area who leave the family home, get married and set up house are moving to the suburbs of Dublin North, County Meath and so on. It is a pattern with which we are familiar. It allows us to examine further the population changes and to plan accordingly. We are all familiar with the problem of suburban sprawl. Those who canvassed in the Meath by-election in particular had this message clearly brought home to them. We must examine how we can attract population back into the centre city areas and into the inner city suburbs. A policy of high density development is being facilitated which I welcome in some respects. Nevertheless, we must be careful in our planning that we do not destroy the traditional neighbourhood communities which have characterised Dublin North-Central and neighbouring constituencies over the years. That is a digression from the subject of the Bill, but there are major planning issues arising from the population changes currently taking place.

Prior to the establishment of the current system of revising constituencies through the advice of an independent commission, alteration was at the discretion of a Minister. We are all aware of the problems that this method brought in its train. One Minister had the dishonour of being added to the political lexicon as a result of his attempts to gerrymander constituencies in what he believed to be in favour of his Government. His attempts failed spectacularly, hence the term "Tullymander". But at least some good came of his actions when an independent commission was established to address constituency change.

The point I am making is that while the system then in place was quite obviously open to charges of malpractice, such charges applied to the system we have today serve only to scar the reputation of this House in the eyes of the citizens of this country and the international community. This is a needless and disruptive practice, and any argument put forward in this debate that is built on the principle that this legislation is undemocratic is inherently weak. To accuse an independent commission of conspiring to gerrymander is undermining and bruising to our democracy. A Bill of this type will inevitably come under attack from elements in the Opposition benches. Their arguments are rarely new and are never founded on an objective and pragmatic analysis of the issues.

The Irish Times recently published an article on this legislation entitled New electoral boundaries will make or break some careers. I suspect this encapsulates the fears of some of those Deputies who attacked this legislation as being driven by so-called anti-democratic values. If they were genuinely concerned for the well-being of our electoral system, they would not be reduced to such unhelpful and unwarranted attacks. We have an electoral system in place in this country which is the envy of less fortunate countries across the globe. It must be treated with respect and managed carefully so that it retains its stature. This Bill ensures that it does and I commend it to the House.

I would like to make a final point. In 2007, all going well, my family will have given 50 years of public service to the people of Dublin North-Central. The reduction of seats in this constituency from four to three will make it very competitive for all candidates contesting the next general election. The electorate will decide who will be returned to Leinster House. I hope the people of Dublin North-Central will re-elect me as one of their three Deputies to allow me to continue to represent them effectively to the best of my ability for the duration of the 30th Dáil.

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