Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

I do not know. They voted for Deputy McEntee, so I had to let them do that. Electoral boundaries for local elections are not necessarily the same boundaries for national elections. There is a growing population in the borough council area of Drogheda which gets all services from that local authority, yet votes in the constituency of County Meath. That does not give it fair representation.

I do not have a problem in principle with Deputy Gilmore's amendment. The issue is whether there is any undue delay by the Government in this instance in comparison with the decisions of other Governments on boundary changes. If the Government is doing something unreasonable, it should be struck down by a court, but if it is not, then we must accept that. However, I understand the basic point. Louth has basically the same population as Cavan and Monaghan, yet it has one less Deputy.

I welcome this debate and we should perhaps widen it later to deal with the fact that constituency boundaries can sometimes be breached by local authority boundaries. The local authority boundaries in a fast growing population ought to be included in the environs of the town to which the population belongs.

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