Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We need to recognise that this report was done by an independent commission. Based on population, the constituencies as laid out should be accepted. The last time a report came in, I tabled an amendment suggesting that the constituency of Galway West be called Galway West-South Mayo because that was the popular choice of the people. My amendment was defeated in the Dáil vote. I was amused to hear some of the Government Deputies of the time continue to call the constituency Galway West-South Mayo even though they had voted against that here in Dáil Éireann.

There is a fundamental difference between changing anything that relates to population or anything else here and making the names more friendly and what the people on the ground want. Whereas I agree with the principle that the constituencies as laid out here should be adhered to, there is no reason the Dáil cannot change the names of those constituencies as long as that name change is reasonable and reflects the desire on the ground.

I have followed this debate with interest. To follow the constitutional provision of as far as is practicable having an equal representation across the country, county boundaries need to be broken. It is just not possible to do it any other way. Solomon or a crew of Solomons would not devise a system to do it any differently. The previous Government made a monumental error in reducing the number of Deputies, which could and should be changed. The reality is that Government Members got their answer. They went on a splurge in trying to reduce democracy because some of their pals in The Irish Timesthought there were too many public representatives in the country. Therefore, they reduced the number of local authority public representatives.

I believe there should be equality in the country areas as opposed to towns - I do not know what is so sacrosanct about towns and cities. Throughout the country we need footpaths, streetlights, water and all the other things. We need planning permission and we have to be subject to all these laws. That said, we could have reformed local government but not reduced local democracy.

The previous Government then proceeded with something it thought would be very popular in trying to abolish the Seanad. However, the reality is that Irish people like public representatives. They give out about us all the time, which is fair game and part of what we are there for, but they love us. They come to us every week and they want us to represent them. They never think they have too many representatives on an individual basis. They think there are too many out there, but they do not think there are half enough in their own constituencies. We should not listen to the gurus all the time; we should listen to the people.

On top of all these cutbacks, the Government decided to go to the absolute limit of the 30,000. I remember when it was nearer to 20,000 rather than 30,000 and with very rapid rises in population we were very near the 30,000. For some mysterious reason the Government decided to cut the Dáil representation from 166 to 158. If when it was proposing to abolish the Seanad it also proposed increasing Dáil representation from 166 to 188 or 190, it might have got away with abolishing the Seanad. However, people were not going to take that much of a diminution in their public representatives.

We should learn the lesson that people in this country value democracy and value local representation. They believe that it is a good idea not to take all their politics from experts. Of course, we should listen to experts, but the people who should ultimately direct policy in this State are the ordinary people of the country for whom we are meant to guide policy.

According to the Government's great national planning framework, the population is projected to increase by 1 million people between now and 2040. That means that because it has gone to the 30,000 limit and it has repeated the mistake this time, with every constituency review the Government will have to review all sorts of areas because it will have to keep increasing the Dáil representation. If we had taken the brave leap and gone back to 166 or 170, the Government would have had to do a little bit of adjusting for population shift, but all things being equal, where the population grew in line with the national trend in population, it would not have had to keep changing it.

If the Government's spatial strategy goes the way it is telling it will go, the rural constituencies will get increasingly bigger. The strategy is to push everybody into the cities and the rural area will be denuded. I do not know if people realise how big and complex constituencies can get. I represent Galway West-South Mayo and I could not believe my luck at the last constituency review because where I had lived and fought all elections since I started contesting elections I had a population of 2,000 within 20 miles of my house. It was not much of a home base.

Thankfully, on the previous occasion another 10,000 people were added to that constituency. I was not exactly complaining because the Mayo border is only four miles from my house and literally borders my parish. Half of that constituency will go back into Mayo and I am happy for those people. They were very anxious to go back into Mayo, and I can understand that, but those in the other half are staying with us and since I can give them a great service because I am so local, I am very happy about that. I hope I will continue to give them a good service as a local Deputy but the reality in our constituency is that we must look at the challenges. We have a good slice of area east of the Corrib, nearly as far as Athenry. A little is being shaved off that, half way between Clarinbridge and Kilcolgan. Despite what people think there is a very populous area east of the Corrib, the area in which my colleague, Deputy Noel Grealish, lives. It is a big enough area population wise to elect a Deputy.

We have Galway city, which gives us local authority No. 2. We then have the whole of Connemara, including four offshore islands that pose their own problems in terms of visiting and servicing them. To travel from one end of the constituency to the other, particularly because we did not get the bypass in Galway, could take anything up to two hours. That is going from east to west. If one goes out to the island it will take one a lot longer, although the aeroplane to Arran Island is handy.

Our constituency then goes into a third local authority, Mayo, so we have three local authorities. To travel from Leitir Mealláin to the furthest end up in County Mayo would take one another hour and a half. That means it is very difficult for representatives to give a good service.

I hear people talk about the House of Commons, the house of this and the house of that. I recall being in Holland one time doing work for An Bord Bia as a Minister. I attended an event and I thought I would have to go around and shake everybody's hand but they told me that politicians do not do that in Holland. I asked, "What do they not do?" I asked them if I did the right thing and they said I gave the speech and did whatever I had to do but the idea of literally going around getting to know everybody was not part of their politics. That is a grand place. One could represent any number of people that way. I am afraid that would not work too well in the way we operate here.

The second myth is that there are only 600 MPs across the water serving a population that is 12 times bigger than ours but they do not have multi-seat constituencies. The reality is that, on average, in a five seat constituency each one of us represents the entire 150,000. The Minister of State knows that too. In addition, since there are another four representatives chasing around and a few Senators on top of that, one has to be at every dog fight whereas if one is the only person with the word "Deputy" before one's name representing 50,000 or 60,000, one would be under a lot less pressure to be everywhere all the time.

I am strongly of the view that we should not be shy about high levels of representation in this country. I am sure that if we put it to the people of Mayo, they would love to get the fifth seat back. In fact, they would love to go back to the time of the six seater or the two three seaters, as would Donegal. I can guarantee that the people of Galway West would love it if our constituency contracted and we could spend a lot more time on the ground in a smaller area.

We will accept this one but I hope whoever is in government the next time does not try to please The Irish Times, which cannot be pleased anyway, and tries to please the people for a change. The next time we should increase the number so that for two or three revisions, allowing for the fact that the population will increase, we will not be forced to increase the number of seats time after time, which is the way we will have to go. If we continue to adjust the 30 at every revision, we will have to increase the seat again and again. We would be better making one jump and having that sustainable for at least three revisions and then, if necessary, making another jump.

Tuigim go bhfuileadar ag iarraidh ag iarraidh an díospóireacht seo a chríochnú anocht. Ní dhéarfaidh mise níos mó faoi. Glacaim leis an gcinneadh atá déanta. Guím chuile rath ar chuile duine sa Dáil seo a bheas ag seasamh arís. Beidh mise féin ag seasamh. Is cuma cén leagan amach a bheas ar an nDáilcheantar, seasfaidh mise agus tabharfaidh mé an oiread seirbhíse agus is féidir do mo mhuintir féin.

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