Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Electoral Commission for its work on the boundaries. There are significant problems with the outcome but one cannot really blame the commission for it. It just implements the process that has been designed elsewhere, particularly here. Its hands have been tied by the decision to restrict constituencies to between three and five seats. The consequence is the current proposal we have, which will pass and come into effect for the next general election.

One good aspect of electoral politics in Ireland is the use of proportional representation. It is a very democratic way. It is not like some countries where minimum votes, such as a 3% or 5% threshold, have to be obtained in order to get into the Dáil. It means smaller parties and different viewpoints have a much better chance of being represented in the Dáil. Proportional representation-single transferable vote allows, generally speaking, for a reasonably close mapping of the vote of people and support for different parties onto the make-up of our Dáil. The higher the number of constituencies with few seats, the farther away from that one will go.

It is regrettable there has been an increase of four in the number of three-seat constituencies, which are, by definition, the least proportional. It is in the interest of the big parties in this State, historically, which are now the second and third parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, to oppose that, because historically it has kind of meant they will get one each, then maybe someone else will get the third, or Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael might get it. The losers there are people who are trying to choose alternatives, such as smaller parties seeking a chance to be elected and to have a voice in the Dáil in national politics, which then gives the opportunity to go further and for more people to say that is the kind of politics they want to see. The increase in the number of three-seat constituencies is problematic, but I understand the commission was working within a certain framework where it had to deal with the political geography and only had available the tools of three, four or five-seat constituencies. That is a thing the Dáil needs to deal with. We need to say there can and should be six or even seven-seat constituencies, which will result in more proportional outcomes nationally and locally.

This process is one of the few areas where an important decision about public life is made and that is basically it. It comes here, but nobody is going to amend it, in reality. It is made by the Electoral Commission. It goes through the figures, publishes it, and that is effectively it, whereas in many other areas of life, such as planning decisions or council decisions, preliminary decisions are made, put out to the public, people are able to make submissions on them, and then any mistakes can be rectified. The process of BusConnects is an example. It published the maps. There was uproar in many areas. There is a process where BusConnects has taken on some of those criticisms. There has been campaigning and so on and some element of a two-way process. It is far from perfect but there is real public participation, whereas in this process, the public gets one go to have a submission. People can make a submission on a national level or about a particular constituency. The commission then makes the decision and that is it. It creates space for mistakes to be made which, if the commission had the opportunity to hear feedback, may be rectified, but there is no opportunity here to rectify those mistakes.

These people are working with a bird's-eye view. They look at the overall numbers and at the electoral districts, and at moving people around, but they cannot possibly have an intimate knowledge of all the different communities throughout the State and how they integrate with each other. I think mistakes are made in breaking up natural communities where natural communities do not naturally fit into electoral districts. That is pretty important. Almost nobody in this State knows which electoral district they live in. It is not something people think about. They might know which council ward they are in but they probably do not even know that. They probably know which Dáil constituency they are in, unless they are in an area where they switch from one to the other. People know they live in Swords, Blanchardstown, Tipperary, Athlone, Tallaght or Rathfarnham. People live in communities that are not identical to the electoral districts. When the Electoral Commission is operating without that real two-way process with communities on the ground and effectively comes up with a decision which to all intents and purposes is a final decision, that is a problem. It can result in communities effectively being broken up.

I will give an example of what I think was a bad decision that was made, which was to break up Tallaght. Some 11,000 people live in the Fettercairn electoral district, a majority of whom live in Tallaght, with a minority living in Citywest. They are distinct areas, although they are beside each other. People would identify as living in Citywest or in Tallaght. Some 7,000 or 8,000 people who live in Tallaght are being taken out of the constituency of Dublin South-West, which contains all the rest of Tallaght, and being put into a different constituency, Dublin Mid-West. That is a problem because these people go to school, go to doctors, use public services and use public transport in Tallaght. They identify with Tallaght, more than they identify with Fettercairn, Brookfield or Ardmore. People identify as living in Tallaght. That is not just some abstract identification. They have real material interests and connections to this geographical place called Tallaght. Now they are being shifted out of the Dublin South-West constituency, which still has close to four fifths of Tallaght left, and into a different constituency, Dublin Mid-West. People Before Profit has a Deputy in Dublin Mid-West, and I have every confidence we will campaign and maintain that seat in Dublin Mid-West and that Deputy Gino Kenny will represent those people in Fettercairn well.

There are dangers that the communities could effectively get stranded and left behind. The main focus of people representing people in Dublin Mid-West could be Clondalkin, Lucan and Palmerstown while this part of Tallaght gets forgotten. It will not be represented by the Deputies who are representing most of Tallaght while it will not be on the radar of the Deputies representing the constituency it is in, who will not live in Tallaght and will not be connected to the issues affecting people in Tallaght. This is quite problematic.

There will also be a major issue because for many people it will be on the day they go to vote that they will realise they have been moved to a different constituency and they will not recognise the candidates. They will have seen all of the election posters for Dublin South-West because they spend their time in Tallaght. They will have seen other posters but it will not register that they are a different set of people. They may get various leaflets but people do not really engage with them. It will literally be when they go to vote that all of a sudden they will realise they are in a different constituency. I have spoken to many people who do not know they have been moved to Dublin Mid-West for the next general election.

This is a problem that has happened previously. The previous speaker referred to River Valley in Swords, which is a big housing estate that was taken out of Dublin North and put into Dublin West with the exactly the same dynamic as is happening with Tallaght. The majority of Swords was still in Dublin North but a bit of Swords was all of a sudden in Dublin West. This was reversed. It was clearly a mistake and should not have been done. This mistake is being repeated with the exact same thing being done to Tallaght. A similar amount of Tallaght is being taken out and given to a neighbouring constituency.

I do not question that this will be reversed in future. The demographics will shift and it will be recognised that it is a community and it makes sense to have it in one place. It highlights a problem with the process. If the public had opportunities to make submissions on this, it would have been flooded with people saying Tallaght is one area and it should stay together. Saner heads would have prevailed with the benefit of this local knowledge. However, the process does not have the benefit of this at present.

Some of the research projects will be very useful. The question of reducing the voting age is very important. It is a slam dunk case that we should reduce the voting age to 16. People can go to work and pay taxes at 16. Why should people not be able to vote? There is no good argument against it. The main argument against it that people have is that they do not trust what these young people will decide. This is democracy. It should apply to 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds as much as it applies to those who are over 18.

There is also the issue of posters. It is definitely worth doing research on this. As well as considering the option of restricting the number of posters, I encourage discussion on restrictions on the material of posters. This may deal with some of the issues. We are talking about corriboard and plastic posters. This is the dominant form of election posters erected throughout the State. I have seen the argument made that having no restrictions on posters is of benefit to bigger richer parties because they can spend loads of money on posters. Election posters are expensive, do not get me wrong, but what are really expensive are advertisements at bus stops and on buses. If we restrict one of the cheaper forms of advertising, the danger is we will end up benefiting those who have big pockets and who can pay for much more expensive forms of advertising.

There are potential models. In many European countries there are big boards in the centres of various residential areas, with space allocated where people can put up posters. It assists the democratic process for people to see posters up and see there is an election happening and for people to have the opportunity to have the election messages, ideas and slogans of people on posters. It is one of the cheaper forms of election promotional material.

I encourage the consideration of further restrictions on election spending. It is an issue. One of the problems is that the restrictions on election spending only kick in when the election itself is called. There is nothing to stop someone spending tens of-----

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