James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply and welcome his remark that if a request is received from Wexford County Council, he will consider it. He might clarify whether he is talking about the county manager or the councillors making that decision. We did have a freedom of information request and it was clear that it had come from the Minister of State as opposed to anybody within the Department. We still have had no reason or explanation as to why he made the recommendation that Kilmuckridge be taken from the Enniscorthy municipal district as recommended by an independent boundary committee and that it was suddenly whipped into the Gorey area. We talk about town centres being the focus, yet we have an area one mile and a half south of Enniscorthy bridge that is now part of Gorey which is 35 km further north. People's minds there are completely boggled by it.

The Minister of State will understand people are asking questions. The independence and integrity of the electoral system are sacrosanct. On this island we have a very murky past in boundaries being changed for political reasons and I certainly hope that was not the case in this instance. At the same time, no explanation or reason has been given for this almost random decision. I assure the Minister of State that the idea of a contiguous coastline is flawed. Only a little further south, the eastern coastline was split into two separate municipal districts against the recommendation of the municipal district. There is an explanation for it in terms of Wexford being a stand-alone town, but Enniscorthy is the second biggest town in the county. It has a population of 12,000 and an historical town, with ties to the events of 1798 and 1916 and the first unfurling of the tricolour, although we share it with Waterford. I cannot describe the outrage felt there. There were mistakes. What we wanted in Wexford, the ideal that was working perfectly well, was three eights and a ten, but the independent boundary commission made its decision for its reasons. However, it was totally unacceptable for it to have been changed after that.

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