Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government claims that Fine Gael and the Labour Party entered government on the back of a democratic revolution. I doubt if any previous Administration, except perhaps the Fianna Fáil Government of 1932, came to power with more promises of reform. The record of the coalition thus far has been a litany of disappointments and broken promises. This Bill is no exception. Its purpose is not to enhance democracy or reform politics in the State or on this island but to reduce the number of Deputies by eight and the number of Dáil constituencies by three.

It is a Fine Gael Bill and it arises out of a Fine Gael slogan about cutting the number of TDs, rather than out of any real consideration of how the Dáil can be truly reformed. The irony is that the original Fine Gael target of cutting the number of TDs by 20 could not be done because it would be unconstitutional, given the increase in the population.

Census 2011 results show that this State's population has continued to grow strongly since Census 2006, increasing by 348,404 persons to 4,588,252 persons in the Twenty-six Counties. This represents an increase of 8.2% over the five-year period. The electoral commission claimed that it was required to base its report on the population in Census 2011 but the report failed to reflect this reality. It was the first time that a commission had a predetermined outcome of reducing the number of Dáil TDs. What we have now is a Bill to axe eight Dáil seats and three constituencies - despite an increased and growing population - and carve up constituency boundaries yet again.

The terms of reference given to the Constituency Commission were too narrow. Crucially, they were constrained by the undemocratic legislation which restricts the number of TDs per constituency to a maximum of five. As a result of that legislation we had, for example, the partition of Leitrim because a six or more seater Sligo-Leitrim-Roscommon constituency was not permitted. With that undemocratic five-seat ceiling still in place we now have the proposed reunification of Leitrim which is most welcome but the partition of Cavan which is most unwelcome. Real and fundamental reform would have revisited the five-seat ceiling and it would have adopted a co-ordinated approach to the Oireachtas and local government, both in terms of democratic powers, numbers of councillors and TDs, and constituency boundaries. This would facilitate better administration and improved representation for citizens, harmonising the remit and the boundaries of local government and the Oireachtas. Instead we now face widely varyingboundaries in terms of Dáil constituencies and councils, missing another opportunity to match them up as far as possible.

Under this Bill, 22 out of 40 constituency boundaries breach county boundaries. Article 16.2.2^oof Bunreacht na hÉireann states that "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". Yet in this Bill the redrawn Cavan-Monaghan, Donegal, Dublin North West, Galway West and Mayo Constituencies each have more than 30,000 people per TD.

Turning to the counties of Cavan and Monaghan, which I have represented here since 1997, I can only describe this Bill as a travesty. It removes a large part of west Cavan from the Cavan-Monaghan Constituency and creates what I can only describe as an unnatural or, dare I say it, Frankenstein constituency comprising Sligo, Leitrim and parts of counties Donegal and Cavan - four counties cobbled together from two provinces. To facilitate this, a chunk of County Galway, in the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's own backyard, is being put in with County Roscommon and all because the sacred cow of the five-seat ceiling will not be touched by this so-called reforming Government.

It is a carve-up, plain and simple. County Cavan is and always has been an administrative unit in terms of local government and a united county, either as a stand-alone constituency or with County Monaghan, for Dáil elections. There is no logic or sense in splitting away west Cavan. The carve-up takes 36 electoral divisions with a population of 13,183 out of County Cavan. Thus, west Cavan, a part of the wider hinterland of the county town of Cavan, is removed to a separate Dáil constituency. The Cavan-Monaghan Constituency is to be reduced to four seats, meaning that its population will be under-represented.

From two counties with three seats each, this former six-seat area will now likely only have four Dáil representatives in the 32nd Dáil despite the increased population of both counties. The electorates of counties Cavan and Monaghan deserve better than this. Marginalised Border counties that have suffered underdevelopment and underinvestment during the decades since partition deserve better than this.

I urge the Minister and the Government not to proceed with this crude constituency boundary redrafting proposal but to sit down with all interested opinion and address the real reforms that can and should be introduced in both local government and in Dáil and Seanad representation.

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