Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Although this is probably one of the shortest Bills to come before the House for a while, I suggest any Member could speak on it for days. Electoral issues seem to be very close to our hearts. As I have just a few minutes, I will concentrate on the proposal to reduce the number of Dáil Deputies which is exercising our minds. Obviously, I would have preferred a greater reduction in the number of Deputies to be proposed. I suppose we were stymied by the unexpected increase in population revealed by this year's census findings. The Constitution prohibits us from getting rid of a greater number of Deputies without holding a referendum.

I agree with Deputy Ross who has left the Chamber that multi-seat constituencies are not good, overall. Ultimately, we should get rid of them and adopt another system. National and local politics would benefit from a move away from the competitive constituency politics from which we cannot seem to escape. Given that we are retaining multi-seat constituencies, however, it is a shame that the constituency commission will be required to confine itself to three-seat, four-seat and five-seat constituencies. I ask the Minister to consider allowing it to use six-seat constituencies in exceptional circumstances in order to avoid breaches of county boundaries. I know it is supposed to try to avoid such breaches where practical, but the reality is they happen every single time. To be honest, they are a complete pain in the neck and make the job of local and national representation much more difficult.

A council which caters for a small portion of a different county or constituency tends to regard the business of that area as an add-on to its main business. I am sure that tendency is absolutely unintentional. Regardless of the assiduousness of the councillors elected in one of these areas, if the bulk of the members of the county council represent a different constituency, that will be the focus of the council. That is what happens when bits of constituencies are pushed into other areas. It is not malign - it is human nature. That has been my experience. Two thirds of my constituency is in one county council area, while one third is in another. If the phenomenon to which I refer can create difficulties in urban areas that are geographically much the same, as Deputy Timmins pointed out, one can imagine how much more difficulty can be caused in rural areas that are geographically more distant and diverse than cities. Like most Members, I am sure the Minister, Deputy Hogan, is aware of the role played by counties and constituencies in generating and engendering a sense of place and belonging. Therefore, it is not a good idea for counties and constituencies to be working against each other.

Although the Bill provides for some political reform, much more needs to be done. I think the Minister accepted this when he spoke. I welcome the announcement that a White Paper on local government reform is to be prepared. Those of us who have been around for a while know that previous efforts to reform local government resulted in anything but reform. We ended up with less effective local government. I am a great admirer of local government which has a huge role to play. It should be a great force in improving quality of life. We all know it can do better than it is doing.

Now that we are in the midst of an economic crisis, it is time to bite the bullet on the form and functions of local authorities. As I said, there is far too much public representation at local and national level. We could make do with less representation. We would do much better with fewer councillors. It is time to bite the bullet with regard to town councils. However, I am sure town councillors would not agree with me. I suggest the functions undertaken by town councils would be far more efficiently undertaken by city and county councils with greater powers and responsibilities. I do not under-estimate the difficulties involved in devolving functions and streamlining local authorities. However, if we are to achieve real political reform at national level, Deputies must be released to deal with national issues, concentrate on the bigger picture, scrutinise legislation rigorously, ensure the laws of the country are the best we can have and put in place the safeguards, checks and balances needed. This cannot be done, unless we begin by reforming local government. We all recognise that during the recent general election campaign people spoke about national issues and said Deputies should be dealing with them. I am sure the reality is that no Deputy has noticed a diminution in the number of local issues being raised with them. That will continue until we have fundamental political reform.

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