Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I have listened at length to the arguments made by Deputy Gilmore. Whatever we know now, however, it is certain that if we proceed on the basis of preliminary figures we know to be imperfect and subject to revision, we will face a legal challenge. This is not the first time the issue has been dealt with by a Minister. On the previous occasion, Deputy Howlin was the Minister who steered the Electoral Act 1997 through the Oireachtas. As the 1997 Act introduced into law a practice which had extended back over a longer period, it is untrue to contend we are in unfounded territory. Deputy Gilmore was pleased to vote in favour of Deputy Howlin's legislation.

The long-standing practice provided for in the 1997 Act is continued in my Bill. There is also case law, as I pointed out on the previous occasion on which we discussed the matter. I again draw the attention of the House to the decision of Mr. Justice Budd in 1961, as set out on page 119 of the Irish Reports, which could not be clearer. According to Mr. Justice Budd, while the preliminary figures of the 1946 census were provided in the case he was judging, it is the final figures to which regard must be had for the proper purposes of comparison with the distribution of population. While Deputy Gilmore was correct to say that the final figure for the total population in the most recent census did not vary greatly from the preliminary figure, he was wrong to suggest that there were not variances at the micro level at which constituency boundaries are discussed.

Variances at the constituency level can be significant. There should be no great difference in the first and last figures for the overall population if enumerators have been doing their jobs. The final figures on which the Oireachtas has always depended are precise and they deal exclusively with the data below electoral division level. I refer here, for example, to the figures relating to townlands. The CSO is adamant that the preliminary figures do not have a statutory basis and that it cannot provide the detailed information on which boundary commissions depend until Volume 1 is published. One can never suggest that there will be no legal challenge in respect of a matter which has touched on constitutional issues, one can only follow the long-standing practice. In this instance, that practice has been to use the final, precise census figures.

In the context of hypotheses as to whether there will be a legal challenge, it is far more likely that one will be successful if we go forward on the basis of the imprecise, preliminary figures. It would not be right or proper to request a commission to use those figures. If one were to operate on the basis Deputy Gilmore suggests only to find the final figures to outline significant differences below the electoral division level, one would face a real crisis. The best practice is that which has operated for a long time. This was put into law by Deputy Howlin in the 1997 Act and it accords with precedent in case law, two examples of which I have recorded. It would not only be imprudent and dangerous to accept the amendment, it would be reckless. On those bases, I cannot accept it.

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