Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Connolly. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak to the Bill. It will put in place recent changes announced by the Electoral Commission and give the legal blessing of the Legislature. It will put into legislation the make-up of the next Dáil of 177 Deputies, which will reflect the constitutional imperative for one Deputy for every 20,000 to 30,000 citizens. On balance, the commission took an overly conservative position on the changes to constituency boundaries. In Donegal, the one constituency to which I can speak most easily, there is a clear need for the county to revert to being one unit, as in the entire county of Donegal, although the Electoral Commission was not allowed to do that because under county boundaries, the constituency would have to have six seats. At the least, it should have been divided into one constituency for the south west and another for the north east, as was the case previously, which would ensure Donegal was reunited as a functioning area.

It seems the reason this was not done at this time related more to Sligo-Leitrim than to Donegal, because in order for Donegal to be reinstated as two constituencies or a single, whole-county constituency, an equivalent area would have to be taken from Roscommon, Mayo or some bordering area of Sligo-Leitrim. Alternatively, part of Leitrim or Sligo would have to be ceded to some other constituency to maintain that balance of 20,000 to 30,000 of population to one Deputy and revert Sligo-Leitrim to being a three-seater or else keep it as a four-seater. Those are the issues on which the constituency reviewers had to make a judgment call and that is the way they worked it out but I think that, really and truly, what the constituency review has done at this stage is kick the matter to touch, because the commission is going to have to revisit this after the next election. At that point, Donegal and Sligo-Leitrim are going to have to change and it will all have to be done again.

Rather than do it in one fell swoop, therefore, the commission has chosen to do it in two bits and pieces. That is a retrograde step. There was an expectation among everybody that that was going to happen, not least in Donegal, given Ballyshannon, Rossnowlagh and Ballintra are still in with Sligo-Leitrim. Functionally, I suppose, that area is too small to elect a Deputy and, therefore, it could never stand alone within the Sligo-Leitrim constituency, but it also contributes to electing Sligo-Leitrim Deputies as well and its functional area is under Donegal County Council as well.

That is something which, in an Irish context, has to be addressed. The idea that county boundaries should be maintained is vital and should permeate all our thinking in this regard. A method could be found whereby the county boundaries could be respected constituencies could benefit the people and we could recognise the growth in the population as well. I think that can be achieved. To do that, we would have to revisit the constitutional imperative whereby there must be one Deputy for every 20,000 to 30,000 people, and that is what we should look at overall to ensure it will be done. There is a strong connection in Ireland to the county boundaries and people recognise whether they are from, say, Leitrim, Sligo or Donegal, which should be seen in political life as well.

It gets complicated when it comes to the cities, as it always will, and in particular cities such as Limerick, to which Deputy Leddin referred, where the boundaries of cities go over, but that is really a local government issue rather than an electoral one. It can be addressed in that context where there are anomalies, not least where cities have a boundary and recognised area that differs from the county boundary. I would imagine that even those parts of Clare that are in Limerick city identify with Limerick city as well as identifying with Clare, and that can be addressed. That would lead to fewer anomalies in the system overall than there are now, and that should be examined and addressed.

We have to look at the connection to the county boundaries. As well as looking at the numbers in the Constitution and so on that Deputies must represent, we cannot look at this in isolation. We have to look at it also in terms of how local government is addressed and reformed. I have heard Deputies during the debate talk about how there are too many Deputies in the House, but I do not believe there are. Similar sized countries in Europe have very similar levels of representation to us, and we should look to them. It is true that in comparison with the UK, for example, we definitely have more Deputies per capitathan it has MPs, but I do not think we should be looking across the water at any time to see how we should be going with things. We should be looking to see what works for us as a country, and I believe we need to have more representation across the board. I think that works, and there is a need for it to work.

We need to look at local government, how it is run and how it can have more powers and more say. Perhaps we could then look at reducing the number of Deputies, if local government actually did local work, controlled budgets and so on. We need to revisit the county manager system, which needs to be addressed. It was established in 1940 because of corruption on the part of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and because appointees were being chosen in a political manner. The county manager system was put in place, supposedly, to take politics out of the local government system. It has worked to an extent, given it takes politics completely out of the matter, but what happens is politicians pretend they are in control when they have no control at all over how the local government system works, with the county manager and his or her staff actually running the show and calling the shots. That needs to be addressed in whatever system we put in place. It is only then, by giving control back to the local authorities, that we can reduce the need for national politicians. That is vital, but it can be done only as part of an overall change.

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