Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

The issue of county boundaries came to light when County Leitrim was split. Following the 1977 general election the county did not have a TD resident in it. This caused outrage at the time and a major campaign was begun, as a result of which one of the guidelines about not breaching county boundaries, where practicable, was inserted into the legislation but now in 2005 we are right back where we started and making the same mistakes again. We seem to be moving backward instead of forward. At one point in the 1940s I think there were three County Leitrim TDs in a seven seat constituency but now the county is facing the prospect that in a three seat constituency there may be no TD living in the county. This is a disenfranchisement of the people of County Leitrim. It is almost saying that because the county is so small it really does not matter. The 2002 census showed that there were 25,799 people living there. I advise the Minister that if County Leitrim is split, it will almost certainly lose a resident TD. I ask him to look again at the legislation and amend it to ensure the county will have a reasonable chance of having a resident TD.

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