Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

I wish to share time with Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick.

I welcome the broad thrust of the Bill. I concur with my colleague, Deputy Burton, on many of the points she made. I propose to discuss our good fortune in having such a process for fixing the boundaries of our electoral constituencies. I will also raise a concern that electoral boundaries and many of the other administrative boundaries we use do not coincide. I will then refer to under-representation of urban areas, another issue raised by Deputy Burton. I will conclude by looking to the future.

This a necessary and worthy Bill. Proportionality is an important principle, as is the onus in the Constitution to ensure each Deputy represents between 20,000 and 30,000 people. Fulfilling the latter requirement creates winners and losers. For example, the reduction from five seats to four seats in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire will make life more difficult for the five sitting Deputies but make life easier for those seeking to be elected in other constituencies.

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