Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

I realise that it may not come to pass but if it did, that is what would happen. Never in the history of the State has a commission been asked to make the decision about cutting the number of TDs. It is only in the last two Electoral Acts that a range has been set. Previous commissions, however, ignored that and left the number at 166. In both 1998 and 2006, both commissions stated they had decided not to recommend a change in the numbers because they were satisfied membership levels allowed for a reasonable arrangement of constituencies in accordance with the relevant constitutional provisions and terms of reference.

The Minister is making the commission's job very difficult. Under the Constitution, the Dáil and the Seanad should set the numbers. That is my interpretation. The recent case on joint labour committees stated the Oireachtas should not hand decision-making functions to an outside body, especially without proper guidance. The Minister is not giving the commission any guidance because he does not want to wield the knife. He wants someone else to do the dirty work. The Minister is wrong in doing that. It has never been done before in the history of the State. Under the last two Acts, both commissions ignored the range that was set and left the number of TDs at 166.

A Fine Gael TD stated on Committee Stage that people want the numbers to be cut but we should not do things because the public or a focus group want them. What is the right number of TDs? What is the right kind of representation? The Minister has not analysed those questions. He is doing this purely for populist reasons and is mistaken for that reason alone.

The population has increased by 20,000 per year and everyone knows the prediction is for that to continue. In 2016 there will be another census and the Minister will have cut the number of TDs for one election only and then the cut will have to be reversed for the following election. This is a total waste of time and it will not save any money. It will only save money from the period between the next election and the follow election, which could be a couple of years. This is a totally cosmetic exercise. I will make these points to the commission but I believe the Minister is mistaken on this.

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