Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move Amendment No. 5:

In page 3, after line 30, to insert the following:

“Research on revision of Dáil constituencies

5.In relation to the revision of Dáil constituencies, An Coimisiún Toghcháin shall within 24 months of the passing of this Act conduct research and make such recommendations as it considers appropriate to Dáil Éireann on—

(a) the abolition of constituencies returning three members, and

(b) the specification for an indeterminate period of the number of members of which Dáil Éireann is to be composed and of the constituencies to be represented by the members, while varying from time to time the number of members to be elected for each such constituency having regard to changes in the distribution of the population throughout the State.”.

This amendment is similar in form to the previous amendment in my name. It is again seeking to require An Coimisiún Toghcháin to conduct research on two specific issues. First, on the abolition of constituencies returning three Members. Second, a specification for an indeterminate period, that is indefinitely, with regard to the fixed number of members for the Dail and a fixed set of boundaries for constituencies.

We are asking An Coimisiún Toghcháin to conduct research into this. Again, I stress, this is an attempt to be constructive and to ensure future-proofing. We are all agreed that the most recent exercise by the Electoral Commission will have to be repeated after the next census results are published. The report of the Electoral Commission made clear that the exclusion of provision for six-seat constituencies and the continued use of three-seaters set the parameters for its deliberations. I know that the Minister of State's own party and my own expressly wanted to see provision made for six-seat constituencies. It is not just that we believe that they might be more favourable to smaller parties, as indeed they are, but much more importantly, they are more reflective of people voting intentions.

There is an excellent article by Professor Michael Gallagher on 6 September in The Irish Times, a noted political science scholar, who talks about the need to ensure the most representative system is in place. Indeed, it was Professor Gallagher's article which inspired us to put into this amendment the requirement that the commission would research and report on providing for a system with fixed-size Dáil and a fixed number of constituencies because the number of members to be elected for each constituency could then be changed from time to time, to reflect changes in the distribution of the population.

The advantage for people and for voters would be that they would not see themselves moving between constituencies and we would not see county boundaries being breached, as we have done in every constituency with every report from electoral commissions over the years. This would be a way of future-proofing and ensuring greater certainty and stability for people who are voting.

I spoke before about my loss of Kimmage C ward in Dublin Bay South. This was not my loss but it was the loss of that ward to the Dublin Bay South constituency for the next election. That ward has moved in and out of Dublin South-Central and what was Dublin South-East, and is now Dublin Bay South, over many years. We all know different examples. We have all seen this with Wexford and Cork where constituency boundaries have been drawn and redrawn. People then no longer have certainty over the electoral area in which they live and over the make-up of the of the political representation they will have. We believe, and indeed Professor Gallagher makes the point very persuasively, that it would be more representative and would be a better way to support our democratic system to have that model in place and, indeed, to allow for six-seater constituencies, so in the proportional representation single transferable vote system people's voting preferences would be more closely acknowledged and recognised in the Dáil. I am not going to press this to a full vote but I want to press it to a voice vote because we believe it is a very important principle.

There was also an amendment we tabled, which was ruled out of order and which I raised earlier with the Minister of State, about ruling out the publication of postal addresses of candidates in elections, local and national, and I say again that that is an important area. The Labour Party will certainly be putting all of these matters into the submission we will be making to the Electoral Commission in the context of the research programme it is devising and we are very hopeful, even if the amendments are not passed, that we will see the Electoral Commission making recommendations. We believe these are all vitally important issues for the governance of future elections.

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