Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Deputy McGrath comes in to the House and tries to shout me down when I want to outline the facts and tell the truth. If he was better prepared, he would not need to resort to such gutter tactics.

The legislation enacted in 1997 provides for three, four and five seat constituencies. It is wrong for Deputies to come in to the House and impute that somehow or other those who formed the commission could have varied the law. They could not. Deputy Harkin legitimately asked a specific question as to whether they had been in contact? The answer is no because they were operating within the law as it stood. It would not be normal for them to communicate back and make such a query.

From time to time the commission's recommendations have been criticised for not keeping to county boundaries. I represent a constituency which has experienced every conceivable variation. At one time parts of County Wicklow were included with County Dublin, parts of County Kildare and County Carlow. There have been other variations in the past. Much of the debate surrounding the Bill has focused on the breaching of the boundaries of County Leitrim resulting from the commission's proposals. I can fully understand the way in which people in Couinty Leitrim feel about the matter. In some areas there is an attachment to county boundaries, as Deputy O'Dowd pointed out.

The county boundaries issue is not as pressing in other areas. In places such as Drogheda the contiguous area affines all of its connections in Drogheda. One could more legitimately argue that in such circumstances the county boundaries should be breached. There is also case law in this regard such as the judgment of Mr. Justice Budd in the O'Donovan case. He stated that although in the main a system based on counties had been adopted, there was nothing in the Constitution about constituencies having to be based on county boundaries. This is true because the last of the counties, County Wicklow, was formed in 1604. Some parts identify more with County Wexford than other parts of County Wicklow. Mr. Justice Budd also stated the Constitution did not state that in forming constituencies according to the required ratio it should be done as far as was practicable having regard to county boundaries.

Deputy Morgan made a practical point about connectedness between the electorate and the elected representative. If we look at his amendment, we are talking about a larger constituency. Deputy Harkin is right. The logic of a large constituency is that there would be one single constituency because there would be absolute proportionality. Why stop at seven? Let us consider the impact of a six or seven seat constituency.

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