Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, line 7, to delete “Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017;” and substitute the following:

“Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017; to give effect to European Council Decision (EU) 2023/2061 of 22 September 2023 establishing the composition of the European Parliament; and for that purpose to revise European Parliament constituencies; to provide for the number of members to be elected for such European Parliament constituencies; to amend the European Parliament Elections Act 1997;”.

The provisions of the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023, as they currently stand, give effect to the recommendations of An Coimisiún Toghcháin in respect of the total membership of the next Dáil and for the revised Dáil constituencies. The Bill does not provide for revisions to our European Parliament constituencies. On Second Stage and Committee Stage, my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, indicated that amendments would be required in respect of the revision of our constituencies for the European Parliament elections, following the adoption of the European Council decision on 22 September 2023 which, among other matters, allocated an additional seat for Ireland, raising our total complement of seats to 14 in the next European Parliament.

As Members will be aware, An Coimisiún Toghcháin published its European Parliament constituencies report on Monday of last week, 20 November. In its report, An Coimisiún has recommended a three-constituency configuration. Dublin will remain unchanged at four seats. South will retain five seats but will transfer the counties of Laois and Offaly to the Midlands-North-West constituency. The Midlands-North-West constituency, with the addition of Counties Laois and Offaly, will increase to five seats. That figure has gone up by one. In broad terms, amendments Nos. 1 and 4 propose to amend the European Parliament Elections Act 1987 in order to provide for the revisions of our European Parliament constituencies, as recommended by An Coimisiún Toghcháin and for the number of MEPs to be elected to each of these constituencies.

The amendments proposed to section 6, namely, amendments Nos. 7 and 8, are consequential and arise on foot of amendments Nos. 1 and 4.

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