Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Whoever is elected to represent the constituency will do his or her utmost to represent the people of west Cavan and south Donegal as well as the people of Sligo and Leitrim but people in those parts of the new constituency will feel the same wrong has been done to them as was done to Leitrim and they will be right. They will suffer the same disadvantage that people in Leitrim suffered when the county was divided.

The report on which the Bill is based recommended there be a reduction from 166 seats to 158 seats. The perceived wisdom is that this is a good thing; reducing is the same as reforming. I argue, however, that this is not the case. Since the last census, the population of Ireland has increased steadily, with a rise of 8.2% over the five years from 2006 to 2011. The report of the commission was based on the population census of 2011 so it does not reflect the current reality.

This is the first time a commission had a predetermined outcome where it would reduce the number of Deputies. Simply reducing the number of Deputies does not constitute political reform and it will not lead to any significant savings. Reducing the number of Deputies, however, weakens democratic representation. There are many ways to streamline and create better ways of working in the Oireachtas without reducing democratic representation.

It makes no sense that local authority administrative areas are different from Dáil constituency boundaries. I cannot think of any other business or industry where there would be a mismatch between the building blocks like that between democracy at local authority level and the Dáil constituencies. It does not work for the management of county councils or the Deputies who represent the areas. It leads to inevitable duplication, inefficiency and gaps in service planning, delivery and evaluation. It does not make sense. Research by political scientists indicates there are real problems for the people involved in the counties where boundaries are breached for electoral purposes. There is an alienation among voters that leads to low turn-out in elections.

Additionally, five constituencies are now in breach of the Constitution. Article 16.2.3° states the total number of Members of Dáil Éireann shall not be fixed at less than one Member for each 30,000 of the population or at more than one Member for each 20,000 of the population. Cavan-Monaghan, Donegal, Dublin North-West, Galway West and Mayo each have more than 30,000 per Deputy. Something must be done to address that.

Sinn Féin would like a review of the terms of reference of the commission. It should be possible to have set electoral areas but a flexible number of representatives, particularly if we are open to the notion of five, six, seven or even eight seat constituencies. As far as possible, we should fix electoral areas along county boundaries. It is farcical if before every election that there are people who do not know if the county will be split or not. There is a way to achieve this if we have the will to do it.

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