Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

The purpose of the Electoral (Amendment)(Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012 is to provide for the number of Members of Dáil Éireann, to revise Dáil constituencies in the light of the results of census 2011 and to provide for the number of Members to be elected for such constituencies.

In the programme for Government we committed to "reduce the number of TDs following the publication of the results of the 2011 census of population". A first step towards achieving that was taken in the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2011. In that Act the range for the total number of Members of the Dáil was set at not less than 153 and not more than 160. Today's Bill provides for a total number of 158 Members of the Dáil. It delivers on the programme for Government and we will see this change in the 32nd Dáil.

In debating and deciding upon this Bill the Oireachtas will meet its constitutional obligation to review and revise constituencies with due regard to changes in the distribution of population. We have legislative provision for supporting the Oireachtas in this task. The Electoral Act 1997 provides for the establishment of a constituency commission and for that commission to report to the Ceann Comhairle. The most recent commission reported to him on 21 June 2012. The Government has given consideration to the recommendations of the commission and has agreed to implement them. The Bill provides for this.

While the Oireachtas has, in the Electoral Act 1997, made additional provisions for constituency review and revision, the provisions in the Constitution have primacy. Bunreacht na hÉireann makes clear and distinct provision for the membership of Dáil Éireann. Article 16.6.2° of the Constitution provides: "The number of members shall from time to time be fixed by law, but the total number of members of Dáil Éireann shall not be fixed at less than one member for each thirty thousand of the population, or at more than one member for each twenty thousand of the population." Over the years the ratio has tended to be at the lower to middle end of this scale. At present, with 166 Members and based on the 2011 population, there is one Member to every 27,640 of the population. The ratio was one Member to every 25,541 of the population in the last revision. As a result of this Bill, the ratio will be one Member to every 29,040 of the population. While this is the highest ever ratio in the State, it is within the constitutional limit.

Article 16.2.3° of the Constitution provides: "The ratio between the number of members to be elected at any time for each constituency and the population of each constituency, as ascertained at the last preceding census, shall, so far as it is practicable, be the same throughout the country." This is not the case at present. For example, the population to Member ratio, based on the results of census 2011, in the constituency of Laoighis-Offaly is 11 % above the national average. In Kildare South it is 9% above and in Kildare North it is more than 8% above the national average. At the same time it is 10% below the national average in Dublin North Central, 8% below in Dublin South Central and more than 7% below in Limerick City.

The ratio between the number of Members and the population of each constituency, based on the most recent census, is not the same throughout the country at present. This requirement is qualified in the Constitution by the phrase "as far as practicable". The Bill addresses the need for the ratio to be the same in so far as it is practicable by providing for an arrangement of constituencies that allows for a high level of parity of representation. In all the constituencies specified in the Bill the variance from the national average representation of one Member for 29,040 of the population is within 5%. That national average is based on the total population of the State as ascertained at census 2011 divided by 158, the number of Deputies to be in the next Dáil.

This constitutional provision was considered by the courts in two cases in 1961 - the High Court case of John O'Donovan v.the Attorney General and the Supreme Court reference case relating to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 1961. It was considered again in the High Court case taken by Deputies McGrath and Murphy in 2007 where it was argued that the constituencies on which the general election was being fought at the time did not comply with the requirement in Article 16 of the Constitution. In none of these cases did the courts quantify a precise degree of equality of representation required by the Constitution.

Article 16.2.4° of the Constitution provides that: "The Oireachtas shall revise the constituencies at least once in every twelve years, with due regard to changes in distribution of the population". This, in effect, requires that constituencies be revised whenever population changes ascertained in a census lead to population-Deputy ratios in individual constituencies that are significantly out of line with the national average. That is the case at present and the Oireachtas must respond accordingly.

Provision is made in section 5 of the Electoral Act 1997 for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to set up a commission to report on Dáil and European constituencies upon the publication of the census report setting out the preliminary census result. The terms of reference of the commission are specified in the Act. These are, of course, subordinate to the relevant constitutional provisions.

The commission that reported in June 2012 is the fourth commission established under the 1997 Act. This was the first occasion on which a statutory commission was required to carry out a review of constituencies on the basis of a reduced number of Members of Dáil Éireann. It was also the first statutory commission established with authority to work upon the publication of preliminary census results. This was in response to the 2007 High Court judgment in the Murphy-McGrath case. The court in that case had regard to the constitutional requirements and to the high quality of Central Statistics Office, CSO, preliminary population data. The court concluded that consideration should be given to initiation of constituency revisions on publication of the CSO preliminary report on a census, with the revision work being completed when the final data are available. The Oireachtas responded to that judgment by amending the Electoral Act 1997 to provide for the earlier establishment of a constituency commission.

The starting point, therefore, for the work of the constituency commission that I established in the summer of 2011 was the preliminary census results. The commission remarks in its report that, in the event, no material differences emerged between the preliminary and final census results, but the ability to begin the preparatory work greatly facilitated the commission's timely completion of its mandate. As the commission indicates in the report, the initial work of analysis of the effects of population changes and the reduction in membership was undertaken by reference to the preliminary census results published on 30 June 2011. The recommendations from this work were then formulated and confirmed on the basis of the definitive census results published on 29 March 2012. The report on the final results of the 2011 census of population showed the total population in the State as 4.59 million, an increase of 8.2% on the 2006 population. The commission had three months after the publication of those results within which to complete its work.

Copies of the commission's report were made available to Deputies last June on the day it was presented to the Ceann Comhairle. By now I am sure all the Members are very familiar with its content. However, for the record of the House I will outline the main features of the commission's report in regard to Dáil constituencies. The commission recommends that the number of members of Dáil Éireann should be 158. It recommends that there should be 11 five-seat constituencies - the same number as at present,16 four-seat constituencies - one more than at present, and 13 three-seat constituencies - four fewer than at present. This gives a total of 40 constituencies. The commission recommends that 11 constituencies should remain unchanged. These are, as they are listed in the commission report, Longford-Westmeath, Meath East, Carlow-Kilkenny, Wexford, Louth, Meath West, Cork East, Wicklow, Clare, Dublin Mid-West and Cork South-West. It reports that it considered making those constituencies, which I have listed, conterminous with the relevant county boundaries. However, to have done so would have either resulted in variances in some of the constituencies concerned, which the commission considered unacceptable, or required changes in adjoining constituencies. The commission states in its report that it was satisfied, in the light of the constitutional requirements and its terms of reference, that the existing arrangement was acceptable from the point of view of equality of representation.

The commission recommends changes to constituencies in the following areas - Cork, Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan, Dublin, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, Kerry and Limerick, Waterford, Tipperary, Laois, Offaly and Kildare. In the Cork area the commission recommends a reduction of one seat to take account of the population, as ascertained in census 2011, and in the context of a 158 seat Dáil. The commission recommends maintaining the existing five constituency formation in Cork but with the transfer of electoral divisions from Cork North-Central to Cork North-West and from Cork South-Central to Cork North-Central. Acceptance of these recommendations, in the Bill before us, provides for an improvement in the representational ratio in those constituencies relative to the new national average of 29,040 members per TD.

In the Dublin area the commission recommends a reduction of three seats in the context of a 158 member Dáil. One constituency in the area - Dublin Mid-West - remains unchanged. Change is recommended in the configuration of all other constituencies and in the names of four constituencies. The commission recommends an arrangement of constituencies outside the city that mirrors as far as practicable the administrative county boundaries. The population as ascertained in census 2011 allows this to be done and the Bill provides for the adoption of the commission's recommendations for the area. In the city there will be one less constituency, reflecting both the population as ascertained in census 2011 and a smaller Dáil.

The commission made recommendations for constituencies in the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan having examined a range of options for the areas. These are outlined in the report. The commission identifies the particular challenges presented in reviewing constituencies in these counties. These include the fact that Donegal is contiguous with only one other county, namely, Leitrim. Also, having regard to the population as ascertained in census 2011, an arrangement of constituencies based exclusively on county boundaries is not feasible.

In the Galway-Mayo-Roscommon area the reconfiguration of constituencies recommended precludes direct comparison with the current seat allocation for the area, as it does also in the rest of Connacht and Ulster. Having regard to the population as ascertained in census 2011, an arrangement of constituencies based exclusively on county boundaries is not feasible. As the commission points out, the population of Mayo can no longer form a five-seat constituency and Roscommon does not have sufficient population to stand alone as a constituency. Implementation of the recommendations in the Bill means that the Connacht-Ulster area will be divided into seven constituencies instead of eight as is the case at present. The seven constituencies will be represented by 28 TDs compared with 31 at present.

In the Kerry-Limerick area the commission recommends a reduction of one seat to take account of the population and in the context of a smaller Dáil. The commission recommends that the county of Kerry should form a five-seat constituency. It also recommends that there should be two Limerick constituencies, a four-seat Limerick City constituency based on the existing constituency with the addition of ten electoral divisions from the county, and a three-seat Limerick County constituency.

In the Waterford-Tipperary-Laois-Offaly-Kildare area the commission recommends no change to the overall allocation of 22 seats. However, significant changes to constituency arrangements are recommended and these address in particular the representational ratio imbalances in Laoighis-Offaly and Kildare that I mentioned earlier. Waterford should be a four-seat constituency comprising all the county and city area, thus ending the breach of the Waterford county boundary. There should be a new five-seat Tipperary constituency comprising 93% of the population of the county. The county of Offaly with some population from Tipperary should form a three-seat constituency. The county of Laois with some population from Kildare should form another three-seat constituency. There should be a small realignment between the Kildare constituencies which should remain as a four-seat Kildare North constituency and a three-seat Kildare South constituency.

The commission was also required to report in regard to the constituencies for the election of members to the European Parliament. In its report the commission recommended maintaining the existing arrangement of constituencies for the election of Ireland's 12 members to the European Parliament. I will not, therefore, be bringing forward any amendments to the Third Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 in which the constituencies for European Parliament elections and the number of Members to be elected for each constituency are specified. That Schedule was most recently amended by section 8 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009.

I will outline the provisions in the Bill before us. It generally mirrors previous Bills providing for the revision of Dáil constituencies following a census of population. Section 1defines "Minister" as the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government for the purposes of the Bill. It provides for the interpretation of the words "motorway", "road" and "street" in the Scheduleto the Bill.Section 2provides that the number of Members of Dáil Éireann will be 158 after the dissolution of the Dáil next following the enactment of this Bill. Section 3provides that after the dissolution of the Dáil next following the enactment of this Bill, the Members of Dáil Éireann will represent the 40 constituencies specified in the Schedule. Section 4provides that the number of Members to be returned by each constituency will be as set out in the third column of the Schedule. Section 5provides for the repeal of sections 2(2), 3, 4 and 5 and the Schedule to the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009. These specify the existing Dáil constituencies. The repeal will come into operation on the dissolution of Dáil Éireann next following enactment of this Bill. This means that the existing constituencies will remain in place for the purposes of by-elections in the meantime. They will also remain in place in that period for the purposes of the Referendum Acts. Section 6contains standard provisions on Title, collective citation and construction.

The Bill before the House continues the long-established practice of implementing the recommendations of independent constituency commissions in full. It is a matter for the Oireachtas to revise the constituencies and I look forward to the debate on the Bill. I commend the Bill to the House.

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