Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Under the Constitution, the total number of Members of this House has to be at least one per 30,000 of the population. The Economic and Social Research Institute is forecasting that by the year 2040, Ireland's population will have grown by more than 900,000 based on current numbers. The CSO predicts a highest growth scenario over the next 30 years of double that number, which would put Ireland's population at more than 7 million in 2057. That would mean that the number of TDs would have to increase from the current total of 160 to almost 240. This Chamber would not be able to accommodate that number of Deputies. We would have to build a new Chamber to cater for the increased number of TDs, provide additional offices as well as funding for all of the associated parliamentary and support staff for each elected Member, the cost of which would be hundreds of millions of euro.

Recently the keynote speaker at the Clifden Arts Festival, the former Attorney General, Minister for Justice and Tánaiste, Senator Michael McDowell, made a very interesting point. He noted that if the United Kingdom used the same criteria to determine the number of MPs in its Parliament, namely one MP to every 30,000 people, then instead of the current 650 members of parliament, the House of Commons would have 2,400 members. The current figure of 650 members in the UK Parliament has remained constant for almost half a century, with little increase in the past ten years. Spain, Germany, France and the Netherlands have an even lower proportion of members of parliament to population than the UK. So too has Italy, which held a constitutional referendum in 2020 that resulted in a reduction in the number of members of both of its houses. This was passed by a 70% majority, something that I could easily see being repeated in Ireland if we had a referendum to amend our Constitution.

I am not going to suggest what the number of TDs should be limited to. That question should be handed over to the Electoral Commission to examine and I ask all Members to support this. Will the Minister, his party and their partners in government agree to ask the Electoral Commission to look into the idea of placing a cap on the number of TDs and putting this to a referendum?

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