Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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I am very pleased to see the Minister here and I appreciate that he has taken the time to address this very important issue. However, I am disappointed that he did not attend the meeting organised by Fine Gael in the Mount Herbert Hotel, where we discussed this matter at length with local residents.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I was not invited.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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An invitation was certainly issued. I am also disappointed he did not attend the public demonstration on Sandymount Green. Notwithstanding that, I appreciate the fact that he is here, because this is an extremely important issue. It relates specifically to a decision which will have the effect of driving a wedge through the heart of Sandymount, one of the oldest, strongest and most vibrant communities in Dublin city. The decision made in this instance is erroneous and I hope that the Minister will listen to my point and reconsider it.

I find it very disheartening to see terms of reference set out by a Cabinet Minister for a boundary commission which are flagrantly ignored. That is precisely what has happened in the local electoral boundary changes for the Dublin city area. Sandymount is one of the oldest communities in Dublin and epitomises all that is good in community life in an urban setting, especially in Dublin city. It has a great historical wealth that traces back to the Pembroke Estate and is a very important village in Dublin's urban heritage and its cultural fabric. It is a very cohesive community, with a very distinctive geographical and social environment, centred around the green area and along Sandymount Strand.

The reasons for the boundary commission were clear and my party supported them. There was a need to redress the imbalances in local representation around the country. The objective was to redraw the local electoral boundaries, with a view to ensuring a reasonable relationship between the 2006 population and representation within each local authority. My party supports all of this. However, the Minister specifically ordered the Dublin city electoral area boundary committee to respect point No. 3 of the terms of reference. Point No. 3 states that in recommending changes to local electoral areas, the committee should take due account of the desirability of preserving natural communities or the hinterlands of population centres and of the desirability, where it may be possible to do so, of aligning local electoral area boundaries with Dáil constituency boundaries. I contend that the latter part of that point has been observed, but the first part has been flagrantly ignored by the boundary committee.

The objective, as set out in the terms of reference, is to increase the number of public representatives in a particular ward area to no fewer than four and up to a maximum of seven. In exceptional circumstances, three-seat local electoral areas may be recommended where otherwise the geographical size of the electoral area would be disproportionately large. That is fair enough. The terms state that, subject to all this, the committee shall endeavour to maintain continuity in the arrangement of local electoral areas.

Flagrantly ignoring these terms of reference set out by the Minister for the committee will split a community that has been so cohesive into two areas. The community will be represented by four councillors on one side and six councillors on the other side of the boundary. That makes for ten councillors in total, with different area representation for council officials and so on. The contention has been made that this was for cynical electoral reasons for the Green Party. I do not put forward that argument, but I do feel that this will be very divisive for the community in Sandymount.

Terenure was divided into three areas, namely, Rathmines, Terenure-Rathfarnham and Tallaght Central. If the Minister read the submissions and looked at what the residents' associations were saying, he would know that this has been a very divisive experience for the Terenure area. I plead with him not to make the same mistake in the Sandymount area. The people who live there are the people who elected him. He would not be a Deputy, let alone a Minister, if it were not for the people of Sandymount. They have demonstrated on the streets about this and they have shown how badly this will affect them.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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At the outset, it might be helpful if I set out the background to this matter for the House.

A review of local electoral areas was necessary prior to the 2009 local elections on account of population changes since the last review in 1998. Accordingly, on 8 January 2008, I announced that I had established two committees to review local electoral areas and I detailed the terms of reference. The committees are independent from the Minister. They do their work based on submissions received and based on their own analysis, and they make their independent recommendations accordingly.

One committee was required to report on Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford City Councils, and on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin County Councils. The other committee was required to report on the electoral areas in counties outside of Dublin, on the borough councils of Drogheda and Sligo and on the town councils of Bray and Dundalk. The committees were required to report as soon as possible, and not later than 20 June 2008.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister should deal with Sandymount. This is claptrap.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Please allow the Minister to continue.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Under the Local Government Act 1991, the Minister is required to publish a report furnished to him by a boundary committee. I received both reports on 16 June and published them the following day. A copy of each report was laid before each House and a copy was sent to each Member of the Oireachtas. In carrying out their work the committees undertook public consultation, which involved inviting submissions by way of notices in national and local newspapers, a dedicated website, and writing to Members of the Dáil and Seanad, as well as members of local authorities and the local authority associations. Submissions received by the committees, as well as their reports, can be viewed at:

www.electoralareacommittees.ie.

Should the Deputy review the submissions made, she will note that my own party made a submission which proposed that Sandymount be kept within a single electoral area.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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That is like Fianna Fáil — the Minister is speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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In fact, it was a member of the Labour Party who made the only submission which suggested that Sandymount should be split. When publishing the reports on 17 June 2008, I announced that, consistent with long-established practice in respect of constituency formation at European, national and local levels in Ireland, I was accepting the recommendations contained in them. It is my view that to review or seek to amend the recommendations of the committees at this stage, or to seek to second guess their approach to their terms of reference, would undermine the independent and apolitical nature of the process.

There is strong cross-party consensus on the need for an independent, non-partisan approach to constituency revision in Ireland.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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If the terms of reference are observed.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Minister, without interruption.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Recently, the Deputy and her party readily agreed in this House to the recommendations of the constituency commission on Dáil and European constituencies, as set out in the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008. Is she now proposing that we abandon this approach to constituency formation in Ireland and set off on the road back to a time when electoral boundaries appeared to be set according to party advantage?

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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That is the allegation to which the Minister now lies open. It only suits the Green Party, not the people of Sandymount.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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On this side of the House, we are not prepared to do that. I will therefore be making the necessary orders to give effect to the recommendations in the reports as soon as possible. The local electoral areas established by these orders will apply at the 2009 local elections.

Deputy Creighton was relatively measured this evening in her response, but I have seen some of the literature put out by her party. I am disappointed to see that her party has been playing politics with this issue. It was the height of political irresponsibility to organise a public meeting to stir up fears about the boundary change.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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It is called democracy, which the Minister has clearly forgotten since he got into bed with Fianna Fáil. Why did the Minister not come to the meeting?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Allow the Minister to conclude.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Some of the comments made at that meeting were libellous. I do not recall any Minister in this House ever rejecting an independent boundary report.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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No Minister has been made a fool of, as he has.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Either Fine Gael believes in independent boundary reviews, or it does not.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister has no authority. He is redundant.