Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like other Deputies, the Labour Party will not be opposing the recommendations, as is the tradition. We will support the recommendations of the independent commission. I also support the idea of having a standing commission, as suggested by Deputies Ó Broin and Stanley. It would make a lot of sense.

Having listened to Deputy Stanley and the Fianna Fáil Deputies, one must ask where does one start. As the man said when he was asked for directions, "I would not start from here if I were you". When one starts somewhere, however, it ends up having a knock-on effect on the neighbouring constituencies. That is just the way it works. We all understand the difficulty of interpreting the Constitution and the work done by the commission. We should commend the commission on the work it has done. We must deal with the consequences that arise for the various constituencies around the State. The relevant part of the Constitution is Article 16.2 which states:

16.2 (2) The number of members shall from time to time be fixed by law, but 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.

16.2 (3) The ratio between the number of members to be elected at any time for each constituency and the population of each constituency, as ascertained at the last preceding census, shall, so far as it is practicable, be the same throughout the country.

It is about fair representation and ensuring, in so far as possible, that the county boundaries are not breached, although they have been in several cases.

Deputy MacSharry made the point that if we continue on like this and do not change the Constitution, we will end up with more than 100 Deputies for Dublin. A national planning framework is currently in consultation. It behoves us to ensure that Deputy MacSharry's scenario does not happen and we can achieve that by ensuring that we have a proper regional balance and that we rebalance the country, which is over-dependent on the east coast in respect of population, jobs and many other things. We have to build up the rest of the country and that includes ensuring that other cities and large centres of population grow in size. The current draft national planning framework does not go far enough to achieve that. I have put in a submission on my own city of Limerick, as well as a submission on behalf of the Labour Party at a national level, urging that we get real action to ensure we get such population balance. There are many consequences of failing to do so, one being that we would have a huge number of Deputies around the Dublin area and much fewer in the rest of the country. I do not want to see that appalling vista. The national framework strategy has a significant role to play in ensuring that the country is properly represented and it is very much linked to what we are debating this evening.

On the constitutional requirements, I wish to briefly defend my colleague, Joe Costello. When there was a threat of an election - it seems like a while ago but it is only recently - he went to the High Court on the basis of his belief that if the election went ahead before Christmas, prior to this legislation being passed, it would have breached the constitutional requirements. Based on the two sections which I read out, I believe he was correct, although I would not second guess the courts. Mr. Costello's senior counsel noted:

arising from the 2016 census and the 2017 Constituency Commission report, the next Dáil must have more members than the current Dáil to stay within the rules as set by Article 16.2.2˚... The next Dáil must have at least 159 members to comply with article 16.2.2˚ and the commission has recommended that the next Dáil have 160 ... If an election is held it would return 158 TDs which would breach article 16.2.2˚ which creates a mandatory obligation not to breach the limits ... An election would mean three TDs being returned for Mr. Costello's Dublin Central Constituency, when that should be four. The kind of issue which was raised in the case has never previously arisen ... Unless the legislation was introduced urgently the next Dáil could have its constitution and authority questioned ... The situation required to be immediately addressed but while there was a Bill in draft stage to act on the commission's recommendations, that had not been put before Cabinet.

Thankfully we will deal with this Bill this week and I presume that the Seanad will also be able to deal with it before Christmas -----

See this speech in context