Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

She is going to have to deal with three county councils - Kildare County Council; Laois County Council and Offaly County Council. She will need to attend three Oireachtas Members' meetings between the local authority managers and directors of services. She will have to deal with three different administrative staff and three different electoral areas. God help her because that is going to be hard to do. The boundary change is taking pieces of three counties to make one constituency.

My last point concerns voter turnout. In the last election, voter turnout in Laois was just over 39,000 of a 62,000 population. That was a 60% to 61% turnout. It was slightly higher, at 62%, in Offaly. That is small and it is not good for democracy in any man's book, or any woman's book either. We need to try to increase the turnout in elections. The public in Portarlington, Killenard and Ballybrittas in north Laois are now told they are Lillywhites and that somehow they belong to Kildare, and they are not too happy about it. Many of them are very annoyed and say that they will not vote because they are being tied in with Kildare against their will. Obviously, I would encourage people to vote, even if they cannot vote for me, as they should always use their votes.

Their county councils, however, will continue to be Laois in the case of that part of north Laois, and the Gracefield end of Portarlington will continue to under Offaly County Council. The natural hinterland of Portlaoise is Portarlington, Killenard, Ballybrittas and Jamestown, which is eight or nine miles away. The natural hinterland is not Naas, which is within a few minutes of Dublin. Laois in particular has been chopped away as if with a blunt axe. The commission should have paid more attention to breaching county boundaries. I understand that one might need to be breached, but the problem is that two county boundaries have been breached. Whoever represents the people within those areas is going to have to deal with three county councils.

There were other options, which I believe were better options. I do not want to complain too much about it but a better fit could have been achieved, especially for the people of north Laois. Laois could have been left intact. It could have enough population by the day of the next election for three seats, if we were able to sit tight for the rest of this year. If we get through most of 2018, the population of Laois will be more than adequate. Currently, it is constitutionally more than adequate to provide for three Deputies. There was no need for a boundary change on a constitutional basis and it is a pity.

Some of the other changes have been good. As I said earlier, we need to set up a standing electoral commission or an electoral office so there is an ongoing independent body in place that can develop the expertise and take submissions from people. That is my view of it. I am not saying this for my own sake - I also said this in the last Dáil, when there was no breach of two county boundaries that affected me. It is, however, a bad day's work when three parts of three counties are needed to make up an electoral district. It is a bad day's work that Laois may only have two Deputies but County Kildare is guaranteed eight.

I thank the people of Laois-Offaly who, in 2011, elected me to represent them. I also thank the people of south Kildare, especially in the Monasterevin, Kilberry and Kildangan area, for electing me the last time out to the three seater constituency of Laois-Kildare South.

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