Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution on the important legislation before us. Naturally, the legislation is based on a disappointing report. Deputy Durkan outlined the strengths of our parliamentary and democratic systems in his contribution. Public representatives must be close to the people they represent, otherwise they will not be returned to the Chamber.

Earlier today, Deputy Durkan and myself attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade. We discussed the difficulties that have arisen in the greater Belfast area during the past 40 days. Last November, members of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, including the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, were in Belfast. We met representatives of the loyalist community in east Belfast. They had a serious grievance to the effect that they were not represented at all.

All political parties have their faults. Our system has its faults but it has considerable strengths as well. No one is far removed from a public representative in this country. If a public representative was distant from his or her electorate, then his or her term in politics would be rather short.

We have had the privilege of serving in the Dáil for some time. I was elected to the Dáil in November 1992. Deputy Durkan came in the early 1980s, if I recall correctly. The Minister of State, Deputy Perry, has long service here as well. We do not take our election for granted at any stage. When one election is over, we are preparing for the next on the basis that work starts again the following day.

Earlier I saw the contribution of our colleague, Deputy John O'Mahony, on the monitor. He used the phrase "a dog's dinner" to describe the proposal for south Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and west and south Cavan and he was absolutely correct. The proposal for this constituency is outrageous and unprecedented. I tabled a question to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, on 19 September last. I asked whether any previous Dáil constituency configurations involved a constituency comprising the entirety or parts of four counties, as proposed in the boundary report for a new constituency comprising south Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and west and south Cavan, and whether he would make a statement on the matter. The Minister stated in reply:

Thirteen pieces of legislation have been enacted since 1923 which define Dáil constituency boundaries. None of the Dáil constituencies specified in the relevant Electoral Acts comprise all or parts of four counties.

The commission report is unprecedented. Cavan was a five-seat constituency at one stage, comprising the entirety of the county; the county boundary was totally intact. County Monaghan was a four-seater and may have been a five-seater at another stage. Both constituencies were reduced to three seat constituencies. Post the 1969 election a small area of north Meath near Carnaross and Oldcastle was added to the Cavan constituency and it remained a three-seat constituency. Similarly, for a period, the Monaghan constituency had part of County Louth and at another stage part of County Meath. These were small areas but ensured the constituencies had adequate numbers for representation.

The first time Cavan-Monaghan was one constituency was in 1977 and it has been a five-seat constituency since then. There is considerable similarity between both countries. Both are Border counties. We share similar terrain. Both are drumlin counties. We have the same topography and the same type of indigenous industry and economic activity. Many public services in two counties are delivered on a Cavan-Monaghan basis, for example, the Cavan Monaghan Hospital Group, made up of Cavan General Hospital and Monaghan General Hospital. Health services are delivered on a two-county basis. Many voluntary organisations have been formed on a Cavan-Monaghan basis, including the Irish Wheelchair Association, the Irish Kidney Association and Positive Age, a group that does great work with our elderly and senior citizens. All of these groups are organised on a Cavan-Monaghan basis because there is much similarity and a natural boundary. Both countries share a boundary with Northern Ireland as well.

Earlier, Deputy Ó Caoláin referred to the considerable disadvantages that our two countries have suffered because of the Border since the foundation of the State and this is true. Naturally, our two counties suffered tremendously because of the unprecedented Troubles throughout the Six Counties and adjoining areas for a protracted period from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s. There are particular challenges for the people representing Cavan and Monaghan.

I cannot fathom how a group of people could sign off on a proposal to create a constituency of south Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and west and south Cavan. Let us picture the map of Ireland in our minds. Part of Cavan is quite close to Dublin city. People commute from County Cavan to Dublin on a daily basis for work purposes. The proposed new constituency would go from the centre of Cavan, near Cavan town and the Longford border, over to south Sligo, which is currently in the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy Perry. Close examination of the map suggests that the south Sligo area stretches west of Ballina, County Mayo.

We now have a constituency stretching from east of the N55, the Cavan-Granard-Athlone road, to the centre of County Cavan, back to west of Ballina in County Mayo and south of Sligo where it stretches to south of Donegal town. It is ludicrous. The report as signed off by the independent constituency commission is the reason we should ensure there are people with practical political knowledge on any future commission. Anyone who has served in public office or has knowledge of the political system would not have signed off on these proposals. I acknowledge that successive Governments have appointed independent constituency commissions to draft proposals to try to take political people out of the system. However, the next commission should include representatives of the different political groups in the House. Eminent, retired politicians should be included who know the kind of constituencies it is practical to represent.

I will contest the Cavan-Monaghan constituency at the next general election. The large part of Cavan to be included in the proposed south Donegal-Sligo-Leitrim constituency is where I am from originally. My home village is Bawnboy in the centre of west Cavan. I will lose that area from the constituency I will contest next time. I will not have the privilege of contesting with Deputy John Perry in south Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and west and south Cavan.

See this speech in context