Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I move amendment No. 1:

In page 11, column 1, line 11, after “West” to insert “-Mayo South”.

Mar is eol don Aire, is as Contae Mhuigheó don Taoiseach, Muigheó láidir, agus tá dúchas Mhuigheó go smior ann. Táim cinnte go mbeadh an Taoiseach ag iarraidh go mbeadh aitheantas don chuid sin de Chontae Mhuigheó atá ag dul isteach le Gaillimh sa Bhille seo. Mar sin, creidim go mba cheart don Aire géilleadh don iarratas atá os comhair na Dála agus glacadh leis an t-aon leasú seo amháin. Leasú beag atá ann, leasú a thabharfadh an-sásamh do mhuintir Mhuigheó. Caithfidh mé a admháil, ní fhaca mé riamh dream ar bith níos dílse dá ndúchas agus dá gcontae ná muintir Mhuigheó. Is cuma cé chomh minic agus a thagann siad go Páirc an Chrócaigh nó cé chomh minic agus a bhuailtear iad, tagann siad ar ais an bhliain dár gcionn leis an flosc agus an fonn céanna tacaíocht a thabhairt dá bhfoireann fhéin.

When we discussed this on Committee Stage, the Minister rightly confirmed that there was nothing in the terms of reference about names for the Constituency Commission and, therefore, accepting this minor amendment would not undo or significantly change the work of the commission.

The other argument used by the Minister against accepting the amendment was the spurious grounds that there are constituencies that go across county borders with larger numbers in the county not mentioned in the constituency title as happens in the case of Galway West and Mayo South. There is one difference. Their elected representatives in Dáil Éireann are obviously happy that their counties are not mentioned in the name of the constituency. The people of south Mayo are very unhappy that their county is not mentioned in the designation of the new constituency of Galway West that comprises a significant part of Mayo South.

Therefore, I suggest that the Minister accepts this amendment because if he does so, we can move on very quickly. I do not think anybody is opposing the Bill or the remainder of it. Everybody in the House accepts the case for an independent commission in respect of the size and shape of constituencies. There is probably regret in Mayo that the Taoiseach decided to reduce the number of Teachta Dála or increase the number of people to be represented by Teachta Dála because it resulted in the inevitability that Mayo would no longer be one constituency confined within the bounds of County Mayo. It has created this situation whereby part of Mayo had to be put somewhere else - either with Sligo, Roscommon or Galway, with Galway being the county chosen. If the Minister asks the Taoiseach, I am sure he would be very supportive of this because as I said in Irish, the Taoiseach is a proud Mayo man. We all know the very famous song about Contae Mhaigh Eo. It is fair to say that county loyalty among the people of Mayo is as strong as in any county in Ireland if not stronger. County identification is very strong, particularly in the part of south Mayo that I will represent once this Bill is passed. Therefore, I ask the Minister to accept this minor amendment. There are no other amendments relating to it. Everybody else obviously accepts the naming of the constituencies in the rest of the country. The people in Mayo are the only ones looking for change. I cannot see what perversity is prevailing that the Minister cannot accept what is a simple amendment. I know my colleague, Deputy Calleary, will be speaking on this amendment and supporting the rest of the people of Mayo in their demand that their county be recognised in the naming of the new constituency of what I hope will be Galway West-Mayo South.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I am happy to support Deputy Ó Cuív's amendment. The Minister made an aside that we were happy to go in with Galway. We are not. This is a serious point. I know we accept an independent report and reports of the Constituency Commission have over the years been completely accepted. Perhaps it is time to look at that process and perhaps there should be a draft report. Never mind the people in here - communities are very unhappy at being sequestered into Galway in order to make up the numbers for Galway. The name of the constituency is important. We are not advocating a change in the boundaries. It recognises the fact that over 10,000 Mayo people will now be voting in Galway West. They are not there just to make up the numbers. They will make a very serious impact on that constituency and that impact and input should be recognised in the title of the constituency. The name of the proposed constituency is outlined in legislation which is why the Minister is in a position to change it and he can do so without affecting the independence of the Constituency Commission as it will not affect the boundaries.

It is not just people in this side of the House who support it. Various Government Deputies have been running around south Mayo in the past few weeks telling people that they too want Mayo South to be included in the constituency title. Today gives them an opportunity to stand with the people of south Mayo who are very proud members of our county and have their identity recognised in this new constituency.

If the commission came back and said that Carlow-Kilkenny was to be known as Carlow plus a bit, the Minister might not have been too happy with that. I can assure Deputy Ó Cuív that it is only the Government who is changing the voters. Footballers like Donal Vaughan will still play for Mayo and when it comes to Sunday in May, we will still hammer Galway regardless of where we are. This is a serious matter that is important for the people in that part of the county who are not happy at being moved so let us kill off that argument first. Due to the fact that they are not happy and they are a significant input, they should be recognised in the naming of the constituency.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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I would have no problem supporting this amendment because I would not like to see what is happening in this instance happen at all. There is no sense in gerrymandering with regard to constituencies that have helped each other and worked very well over many decades.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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It happened in Kerry the last time.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Nobody is taking rural areas and the difference between the work of Deputies based in cities and areas with large populations and those in more rural areas into consideration when making changes to constituencies. Many Deputies representing the greater Dublin area can walk the length and breadth of their constituencies in a couple of minutes. Compare that to the work a rural Deputy must do to give proper representation to his or her constituents. It is a completely different ball game but, unfortunately, the Government seems hell-bent on this gerrymandering or Hogan-mandering. I certainly do not like it and do not see any point in it. If the Government thinks it will weaken the resolve of some Deputies in this House and get rid of them, it might get a bad fright yet.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy does not like the unification of Kerry.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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I am quite happy to face into north Kerry any day of the week and to represent the people to the best of my ability and thanks be to God, the Minister will not have any say in that.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will not have any say in Carlow-Kilkenny.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Could we come back to the amendment?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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He will be in Brussels.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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The Minister will be in a different place at that stage.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Quiet please.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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He will have a nice little role by the time it comes to that. I support Deputy Ó Cuív's amendment. I appreciate the thrust of it and I know it has been tabled in a genuine and heartfelt way on behalf of his constituents which is why I support it.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I also support the amendment from Deputy Ó Cuív. Mayo should be included in the name. Despite the population increase of 8.2%, it is the first time we have had a predetermined outcome in terms of the number of Deputies. If one looks at the new electoral map, one can see that parts of counties have been sawn off and other parts rammed together. The terms of reference of the Constituency Commission need to be stronger in respect of keeping county boundaries intact. I know it is not always possible to do that and Deputy Ó Cuív's amendment is as a consequence of that. The name is just one issue. Sligo-Leitrim-west Cavan-south Donegal is an odd shape for a constituency. Pieces of Cavan and Donegal will be stuck together with Sligo-Leitrim. It does not make sense. Imagine the work of a Deputy trying to deal with local authorities which he or she is expected to do under Better Local Government in order to have that linkage. Could the Minister and Minister of State take on board that under Better Local Government, the Deputy is supposed to have a strong linkage with local government and the management structure in local authorities?

On the question of the breaching of county boundaries I refer to the situation in Laois-Offaly. I have to deal with four local authorities. I deal with Carlow because of the situation in Graiguecullen, I deal with Laois-Offaly and now I will have to deal with Kildare. The part of Kildare that has been put in with Laois makes no sense. The area in question straddles Monasterevin, Kildangan, Kilberry and Castlemitchell. It is shaped like the Gaza strip. That is the only place I have ever seen that is the same shape-----

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Was Deputy Stanley in Gaza?

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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There is no logic to it. It takes in two local electoral areas which means two engineering divisions of Kildare County Council. It will mean having to deal with two local area engineers and two separate systems of administration of the county council. I know the Minister will make smart remarks in reply. This House needs to look at what is being proposed with regard to local government. I support the strong reform of local government which goes further than the Minister's proposals. However, without proper reform of local government and without trying to make some fist of aligning local authority boundaries with Dáil constituency boundaries, we will have an unsatisfactory system of national and local government.

A boundary commission is meeting today to decide the local government boundaries and the new municipal districts. However, there does not seem to be a connection between the work of the commission and this legislation. There is talk about joined-up government but this will not be possible without some coherence between the Dáil constituency boundaries and the local authority boundaries. I appeal to the Ministers opposite. I do not know if other parties disagree with me on this issue but I hope they do not. Sinn Féin has a strong view that there has to be some correlation between Dáil and local authority boundaries. I am aware we are not permitted to interfere with its work but perhaps the House could send a letter to the commission to reinforce the point that if possible it could arrange for some alignment of the two boundaries in its report which is due in May. It is hoped that when we deal with the next revision of Dáil constituency boundaries we will make a better fist of it.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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This has been well discussed on Committee Stage, as Deputy Ó Cuív knows. He and his party could have put down a number of other amendments with regard to the 20,375 people from Meath who are in the Louth constituency. I suppose it is a case of looking after the local patch-----

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister is good at that himself.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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-----and canvassing for the people in south Mayo. This demonstrates the independence of this commission and I am very happy to stand over it. It is consistent with long-established precedent with which Deputy Ó Cuív is familiar as he was the Minister when all these matters were agreed, in line with that precedent and in line with all his actions. It is quite hypocritical of him to try to bang the drum now about naming a constituency when he did not do it himself when he was a Minister. I will not accept the amendment.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister is always very glib and smart. For his information, I questioned the names of constituencies and if there had been a popular demand for changing the name of a constituency I would have supported it.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Did he change it?

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I was not the Minister for the Environment, except for four weeks and there was no electoral Bill before the House at the time. I will not allow the Minister to waste time because that is all he ever does. The simple fact is that one county, one constituency has asked for its name to be changed and none of the rest has asked-----

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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They have asked.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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They did not ask me. If they had asked me I would have put down the amendment. One county asked-----

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister's own Deputies want it.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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-----so we tabled the amendment. We will give the Mayo representatives and the Galway West representatives a chance to come through the lobbies and show what they think. It is fascinating to read the reports in the newspapers of the Fine Gael meeting of the new Galway West-Mayo South constituency - as they called it - in the past two weeks.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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They are ahead of their time.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister's Deputies are trying to fool the people by calling the constituency locally in their own propaganda, Galway West-Mayo South. They do not have the guts or the gumption to come into this House and vote to implement what they are pretending to the local people is what the constituency is called. We will now give them an opportunity to stand by the name that they themselves are using for the constituency in the constituency and to vote for that. I will presume that the Taoiseach, Deputy Ring, Deputy O'Mahony, Deputy Mulherin, Deputy Kyne - who is present - Deputy Walsh and Deputy Nolan, will come in and stand by the people of their own counties.