Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The first issue I would like to address is that of having a bicameral parliament. Today we have been debating the Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 which has already passed through the Seanad. At the request of the Minister, we have made a great amount of amendments, very few of which have anything to do with the change of Government, as many are technical. If we did not have a bicameral system, we would have the passed the law as it was presented in the Seanad and which the Minister now claims is technically flawed. Therefore, we should be very careful in giving in to popular sentiment without understanding how legislation put through the Oireachtas allows the Opposition to make its case in two Houses and the Minister to make necessary amendments that come to light as a Bill goes through.

In respect of the Presidential campaign, if there is to be a reimbursement level of €200,000, the total spend should not be inordinately above this. Otherwise, it will provide a major advantage for those who belong to strong parties or have a lot of wealth over those with more modest means. While I welcome what the Government has done, it does not go far enough. We do not charge for television coverage in Ireland, with which I totally agree. I abhor the American system of buying advertisements on television and trying to swing the public vote. There is not a great need for a lot of money to be spend in a Presidential campaign and I the issue should be examined again by the Government and the figure reduced.

I would like to talk about the proposals in respect of Dáil elections. Either the Government should do it properly, or not at all. The Minister has found out that population growth, allied with constitutional provisions, means any change in the number of Deputies in the Dáil will be quite small. Technically, it cannot be more than 13. However, if we make changes at the lower end, we will find that in a country with a rapidly rising population every time we set up a commission it will have to change the constituencies radically, even if the population rises uniformly across the State. We all know the difficulties and challenges this poses for aspiring politicians and the electorate alike. The electorate likes constituencies to stay more or less the same and it does not like constituency changes that are forced on it owing to changing demographics. Answering the problem by making changes at the lower end, where we hit the 30,000 mark and will be forced to make more radical changes during each revision, will deliver little benefit. If the population rises in the intercensal period, we will arrive back at 166 Deputies in the Dáil very quickly. However, we will have had to change constituencies much more radically than if we had stuck with 164 to 168 Deputies - the margin that was given previously - and not unnecessarily changed constituencies. This is important because, as we know, the more radical the constituency review, the more upset among the public.

The other issue is the number of people we represent. The Constitution, in a technical sense, talks about us representing 30,000 people but, to a point, that is nominal. The reality is that each of us represents all the people in our constituencies. Even though we might not have been elected by all of them, all of them have a right to call on us. In a geographical sense, the population of the territory we represent is five times the number of population per seat. If we take it at approximately 30,000, in a five-seat constituency, we represent 150,000. However, when we compare that to single seat systems, we are comparing apples and oranges in terms of the physical area we represent.

A further difficulty which arises is that with more Deputies chasing around, one must go to everything for fear that someone else will go to them. Any Deputy in a multi-seat constituency will testify to that. If one was the only representative in a constituency, one might stay at home the odd time. However, we all labour under this paranoia that if one does not go, one of the other four might go and where would one be then because people will say one did not go.

I looked at the terms of reference of the previous commission and what is states is amazing. It states that it should endeavour to maintain continuity. The Government will give these terms of reference again but it is destroying continuity by virtue of trying to change things in a minor way, namely, trying to change the number of Deputies just for the optics.

The terms of reference also state the commission should have regard to the extent and identity of population in each constituency. I often wonder if the commission ever read that. The Minister of State, Deputy Perry, lives in the neighbouring county to the Taoiseach, who lives in County Mayo. Geographically, County Mayo must be the largest constituency in the country and one of the most sparsely populated parts of Ireland. There is only one decent town in the county in terms of population, Castlebar, and it is only a geospailín of a town, again may I stress, in population terms.

If one looks at the problem in Connacht, even Galway with a population of 60,000 or 70,000 is hardly a city in international terms. There are very few towns. Galway West is a large constituency with offshore islands, the large Connemara area and a large area east of the city. It is a pity there has not been more regard to the extent of these constituencies.

My prediction is that if we persist with this, counties Donegal and Kerry, some of the most sparsely areas in the country, will become five-seat constituencies. That gives a lie to what the Minister is trying to do. One of the terms of reference gets thrown out because continuity is destroyed and another gets thrown out because the commission has often come up with very large constituencies in rural areas.

The breaching of county boundaries is inevitable because of the tolerance ruling of the Supreme Court but I have always held the view that if we are going to breach them, breach them well and at least take a slice of a county that is big enough to elect someone. Where the real grief starts is where we take a little bit of a county and throw it into the neighbouring county. It feels like the cuckoo in the nest. It does not feel it belongs and it knows it cannot elect someone of its own.

In regard to the number of Deputies in a constituency, we should make all constituencies three seaters. It is very interesting that in Northern Ireland all the constituencies have the same number of seats. Just because having different sized constituencies goes back to the 1920s does not mean it is rational that people in this House have a totally different experience of politics and face a totally different challenge in getting elected by virtue of an independent commission. I would opt for a smaller sized constituency because of all the rivalries I mentioned. Every constituency should have the same number of Deputies and I would opt for three because it would reduce the rivalries been Deputies in the same constituency.

I could speak forever on this subject because it is one at which we really need to look. My simple message is that if we are not going to change the Constitution, we should not bother doing this because there are more downsides than upsides. I do not believe the Minister will get any kudos or thanks for what he is doing. As promised before this Government came in, we need to look at this issue in its totality and have a very open debate about it.

Contrary to popular myth and despite what the media in Dublin want to happen in this country, I do not believe we will ever get to a situation where people will not want to interact personally with their Deputy. What happens in other countries is their business. It is a charming and a good thing that people in this country feel they can go to any Deputy, whether the Taoiseach or an ordinary backbencher. It stops elites developing and stops privilege because one does not have to go through an intermediary to see one's elected representative, and long may that continue. However, to counterbalance an overly clientalist approach, which is driven by the four and five-seat constituencies, we would reduce it somewhat by having uniform three-seat constituencies.

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