Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak about this Bill. I think I was the only politician from County Cork, if not Munster, who made an open submission to the Electoral Commission. To be honest, I feel it was ignored, much to the detriment of many the areas in west Cork that have been put into north Cork. The last census proved that the population of west Cork has grown. If I had listened to rumours, the only place that I would have been left to stand in, as I said to someone one day, would have been Goleen. It was suggested that various parts of the county, including Castletownbere and Kinsale, were going to be taken. Jesus, there was not going to be a bit left. Thankfully, at least these areas were left to us.

I welcome the fact that county boundaries were respected. That is greatly important. Many people made a strong point about this matter to me. A very disappointing aspect arises when we look at the area of Ballineen-Enniskean. Anybody who knows west Cork knows that it is one town. It is astonishing to think that it is split down the middle.

One half of Enniskean-Ballineen is represented by Cork North-West and the other half by Cork South-West. Ballineen is represented by Cork South-West and Enniskean by Cork North-West. The people of Enniskean continuously come to me about issues and I welcome them with open arms because as far as they are concerned, they are in Cork South-West. It is the same with Castletown-Kinneigh, Newcestown and north of Dunmanway. I argued strongly in my submission that those areas should be looked at and brought back into west Cork. That is their homeland and where they should go. I mean no disrespect to other politicians when I say that people tell me they do not know the politicians in that area and have no association with them. It is sad that nobody listened to their call. This decision was not made by this commission. I respect that. It was made by the previous commission but it should have been put right by this commission. Good God almighty, how can you split a town down the middle? It does not make any sense whatsoever. It has to be looked at again. I plead with the Minister of State on behalf of the people of Enniskean, who are not in my constituency but want to be in the Cork South-West constituency. I plead with the Minister of State to stand up for them and give them that right and give them the only respect they could ever get, which is to be at one with Ballineen, the other part of their town which happens to have a slightly different name. It is an astonishing situation. I would like the Minister of State to come down and see both parts of the town, where they sit and how they are joined together but split apart politically. That is a wrong decision made by the Electoral Commission. The Government has to try to put that right before seeing this through the Dáil.

The population of west Cork has grown. I would like more detail on that. If somebody makes a submission, the least that person should get is a very detailed reply as to why Enniskean, Castletown-Kinneigh, Newcestown or north of Dunmanway were left in a constituency they feel completely unattached to. It is very important that the commission should at least have the respect to reply to the Deputies who pushed for the people who asked us to do that.

There are a lot of people here talking about boundaries. Someone on the Boundary Commission was on the radio one day and was asked about west Cork. They knew I was quite frustrated. They said it was a bit like Cuba and it was almost impossible to sort out the map of Cuba. There is no doubt that the area is well spread out, from Castletownbere to the north of Kinsale, down south and then from Innishannon to Goleen. I accept that but every area can be looked at and looked at fairly if time is given and the proper understanding is there. Sometimes I think maybe the Electoral Commission is made up of city-based people who do not understand rural Ireland. This is definitely such a situation. If somebody comes out and says it is like Cuba and they just could not handle it, there is something wrong somewhere. These areas should have been added.

There is a lot of talk here about posters. Either everyone should have posters or everyone should not have posters. It is one or the other. We cannot have it in the middle of the road because it is not going to work that way.

I would also look at town councils. It is an area we should have more discussion on. Clonakilty continues to have a town council even though town councils were abolished. We need to bring some town councils back in again to work for local democracy.

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