Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

No, it is not normal practice to publish legal advice and the Minister has no plans to do so. The Deputy knows the position. Following publication of the CSO preliminary reports, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, sought the advice of the Attorney General on the census results and constituency boundaries. The Attorney General has advised that constituencies can only be revised on the basis of the final census figures. The preliminary figures cannot constitutionally be used to revise constituencies.

The Electoral Act 1997 provides for the establishment of a constituency commission upon the publication of the census report which contains the final figures. The Act also sets out the considerations to which a commission must have regard in observing the relevant provisions of the Constitution. The Minister intends to establish such a commission to review and report on Dáil and European constituencies as soon as the relevant census report is published. Under the Act, the commission will be required to report to the Ceann Comhairle as soon as may be, and in any event within six months of its establishment. The reports will then be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. That is the procedure.

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