Donie Cassidy (Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

——but the public can also favour the underdog.

I have been in Leinster House for 23 years and seen many things. I am aware of the job that the commission must do and understand why it has to do its work. The redrawing of boundaries started in counties Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo and then affected County Westmeath. I understand why north-west Meath was put back in with the rest of the county. If part of a county must be divided, I do not think any Minister should preside over the division of a parish but my parish has been divided in two. In Castlepollard my brother 400 yards to the right of my home can vote for me but I cannot vote for myself. Neither can my mother. No one living in a rural area which takes up one third of the county can vote for me. Raharney, a small village of 230 people, has also been divided in two.

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