Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

We will not really know how accurate the register is until polling day, when people turn up to vote. Has the Minister considered the number of voters in each constituency and the apparent inconsistencies in the new register? For example, I appreciate that Dáil representation is based on population, and it appears that most constituencies have approximately 18,000 to 20,000 voters per Deputy. However, there are very significant variations. In Dublin city, for example, Dublin Central, Dublin Mid-West, Dublin North-West and Dublin South-East all have ratios of 1:14,000 or 1:15,000 as against the norm of approximately 1:18,000. If one looks at some of the adjoining constituencies, one finds that Dublin Central has a ratio of 1:14,000 while Dublin North-Central has 1:20,000. Dublin North-West has 1:15,000 whereas Dublin North has a ratio of one TD per 20,000 voters. I appreciate that there are some demographic differences but in those adjoining constituencies they would not give rise to that degree of variation. It suggests to me that, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made to get the register right, in urban areas the numbers of registered voters are significantly lower than the norm. Even within urban areas there are wide variations which cannot be explained by demographic differences across those constituencies.

Limerick east is another constituency in which there is a surprisingly low ratio. One would not expect Dublin Central and Dublin North-Central to have the kind of variation that is presented in these figures. I wonder if any inquiry has been carried out into what has given rise to such variations.

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