Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate. It is important to declare that I am one of the Members most affected by the redrawing of the constituency boundaries. As Deputy Nolan suggested, I do not believe we can look on this as reform.

It is a cost-cutting exercise. It is not real reform of how we do our business in this Chamber or outside. It should not be sold as reform. It is simply a way of reducing the cost of running the Oireachtas, not reform of how it works.

I am disappointed that the current review has recommended a reduction of the number of Deputies by only eight. A much deeper reform will be needed in the coming years. We are a small workforce. The country's governing bodies will need to be as lean as possible. The reduction of the number of Deputies by eight does not go far enough.

The commission report states that one of the tasks facing it was to avoid, as far as possible, breaches of county boundaries. In Galway East, it has not achieved that goal. A huge area of east Galway has been removed for electoral purposes and placed with Roscommon. The social and cultural ties needed to ensure a cohesive constituency are now not present. People in Dunmore north, Caltra or Kilmore will not be aware of the major political issues of the day in Roscommon and will continue to identify with east Galway, adding to confusion.

Only nine out of the 33 electoral divisions now moved in with County Roscommon were ever previously part of the Roscommon-East Galway constituency. The newly created Roscommon-East Galway constituency has ensured that a huge portion of east Galway will be cut off from what has always been its natural place in east Galway. For example, placing Castleblakeney or Clontuskert with areas such as Ballyfarnon or Ballaghaderreen simply makes no sense. A number of towns, such as Dunmore, Clonburn, Kilcurran and my own home town of Mountbellew, have also been carved up by the review. Someone will have to explain to me how it makes sense to halve villages the size of these. More than 20,000 voters have been moved into a constituency with which they have little natural affinity. There is a very real threat that, after the next election, those 20,000 people will be left without a representative from this area, as its three current Deputies are from Boyle, Castlerea and Drum, in south Roscommon. A portion of east Galway now finds itself at the very limit of the constituency and out on a limb. Places like Clonfert, Eyrecourt, Kiltormer and Garrafrauns, as their communities are now split between two constituencies, will have two sets of representatives, reducing their capacity to be heard as they lobby for local services. It appears that a wish to reunite Leitrim for electoral purposes has resulted in the carving up of Galway East. While there are politicians in the newly created Roscommon-East Galway who will welcome this move, few householders in Galway East will want to be joined, in political terms, with Roscommon.

Real reform of the political system is what is needed to create a much leaner system of government suited to the needs of Ireland in the current financial climate. The reduction by eight TDs is a small step in the right direction but the cuts and, most important, the reform must go much deeper if real reform is to be achieved. Government at every level needs to be examined, from the number of Deputies to the cost of each sitting. The role of the Seanad is currently under review. This examination must extend to every level of Government, national and local, to ensure this nation of just 4.5 million people is governed in the leanest way possible and to ensure the viability of the nation's finances in the future.

The issue of gender equality in the Oireachtas deserves consideration. There are measures that can and should be taken to ensure greater gender equality in the Dáil, but gender quotas are not the way forward. Jobs should be awarded on merit and that should apply across the board. Women should be encouraged to enter politics by ensuring that the proper supports are available and that barriers to women entering the political arena are removed. The imposition of gender quotas will not further the cause of women entering politics. It will simply improve the optics by having a greater number of women candidates. The real test will be the number of women elected. Thus, the imposition of gender quotas will only serve to undermine much of the progress that has been made on this issue.

This is a small step in the right direction. Huge work remains to be done to ensure that Ireland has the type and extent of government that befits a nation of 4.5 million people while ensuring that those people are listened to by their public representatives and given a legislature and legislation that reflects Ireland in the 21st century.

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