James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The electoral boundary committee was established by the Minister of State on 13 December 2017. It was provided with its terms of reference, which were set out. Its report on 13 June 2013 set out the boundaries in a clear and independent manner. A boundary committee is an independent body charged with setting out the boundaries for elections. For clarity, section 28 of the Local Government Act 1991 provides that "A boundary committee shall be independent in the performance of its functions." Under section 32(2), the Act states: "The committee shall if so requested prepare and furnish to the Minister a report in writing which shall include its recommendations". This was done. The Act goes on to say "the Minister shall publish the report and shall have regard to it". The word "regard" is not meaningless.

The committee very helpfully pointed out by way of additional background that the last such local electoral area boundary committee was established in November 2012. It reported on 29 May 2013, 12 months in advance of the 2014 local elections. The recommendations of the report of that committee were accepted in full by the then Minister and statutory instruments giving them effect were made.

On 11 January the Minister of State signed a statutory instrument in which he deliberately changed the boundaries recommended by the independent boundary committee for County Wexford in respect of the upcoming local elections. This has created farcical situations in County Wexford. For example, people from Oilgate, some of whom live only 4 km from Wexford town, will now have to drive 40 miles north, through Enniscorthy, to attend civic offices in Gorey for help. People who only live 1.5 miles south of Enniscorthy town, who vote in the town, and who consider themselves to live in its suburbs are now being told that they are Gorey people. They now have to go to Gorey rather than to the town where they do their shopping, where their families live, where their kids go to school and where they have spent their entire lives.

Why did the Minister of State make these changes? Why did he take the electoral area of Kilmuckridge, which an independent boundary committee recommended be an electoral area of Enniscorthy municipal district, and attach it to Gorey? The committee was made up of experts and it spent time considering this. I have no doubt that the committee wanted Gorey to have ten councillors, but it certainly would not have done it in this way. The committee took the areas of Ferns and Kilbora out of the Gorey municipal district and put them into that of Enniscorthy. These areas are halfway along the road between Enniscorthy and Gorey towns. I have no doubt that if the committee wanted Gorey to have ten councillors, it would have left Ferns in Gorey. It certainly would not have done it this way.

I cannot express the level of disbelief and anger felt by people, especially people in the south of Kilmuckridge municipal district. Glenbrien is pretty much a suburb of Enniscorthy. The people of Glenbrien were bemused when I was out there two weeks ago trying to explain to them that they are now Gorey people. The people in Oilgate are just laughing at the idea that they are part of a town they have no connections to. There might have been some rationale for Oilgate to be put into Wexford town, because parts of it are closer to Wexford town, but most people in Oilgate do their business in Enniscorthy. Putting Oilgate into Gorey, however, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I want a clear explanation as to why the Minister of State did this, because it was a personal request of his rather than a recommendation of the Department. I am curious as to why he sought this change.

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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First, it was not a personal request. The report conducted by one of the committees in respect of municipal districts recommended changes to nine or ten areas that were in conflict with stated Government policy.

Changes to local electoral area boundaries may only be carried out following the completion of a review by an independent boundary committee. As Deputy Browne pointed out, these committees are established under section 28 of the Local Government Act 1991. The Act states that the Minister must have regard to the report of a boundary committee before deciding on whether to make an order amending local electoral areas. The key phrase there is "local electoral areas". In this case I set out the terms of reference for the boundary committee myself. Section 28 deals exclusively with local electoral areas. In this instance the reports of both committees in respect of local electoral areas were adopted in full. I established two independent groups, committee No. 1 and committee No. 2, in December 2017 to review and make recommendations on local electoral areas having regard to, among other things, the results of the census of 2016 as well as the commitment to consider reducing the size of territorially large local electoral areas and to ensure adequate levels of representation for towns and urban centres.

Concerns had been raised by a number of local authority members across different areas and by the Association of Irish Local Government about the territorial size and configuration of some of the local electoral areas specified following the last boundary review. The demands on councillors in territorially large areas are greater than those on councillors in more compact areas, even when member to population ratios are broadly similar. This can arise due to distance, travel time and the difficulty in keeping abreast of local issues. A further concern which had been raised was the perceived loss of focus on some of the large urban centres by virtue of their inclusion in territorially large local electoral areas.

A further concern raised is the perceived loss of focus on some large urban centres by virtue of their inclusion in territorially large local electoral areas. The report on local government, Municipal Governance - Districts, Towns and Local Electoral Areas, submitted to the Government last year, builds on these concerns and makes several recommendations, including a distinct municipal district to be designated for each of the former boroughs and towns with a population of 30,000 or more within the relevant county, each with a minimum of five members and one or more local electoral areas; and distinct town based or urban electoral areas to be created specifically for the 24 largest urban centres with a population of 15,000 or more.

In the case of Wexford, the commitment to consider reducing the size of territorially large electoral areas, together with the requirement to assign no more than seven councillors to each electoral area, has led to the recommendations in the report that would see the creation of six local electoral areas, LEAs, formed, with a focus on the centres of Enniscorthy, Gorey, Kilmore, Kilmuckridge, New Ross and Wexford. The recommendations made in the local electoral area boundary committee reports in respect of LEAs were accepted in full. This is reflected in the statutory instruments which I signed on 19 December 2018. The overall policy objectives have, in the main, been met, particularly in respect of the creation of distinct town based or urban electoral areas for large urban areas with a population in excess of 15,000.

In respect of the Gorey-Kilmuckridge issue, it is an area that I do not know as well as the Deputy. Geographically, more than half of what is now the Kilmuckridge electoral area was previously in the Gorey district. The view was taken that the east coast part of Wexford was more associated with Gorey than with any other town in County Wexford. I have today written to the chairman of Wexford County Council asking for consideration to be given by him and the members and executive of the council to changing the statutory instrument if there is a recommendation that it be changed. We were limited in respect of the boundary review that the old Enniscorthy area of eight seats and the old Gorey area of eight seats meant that there had to be changes in the district. I emphasise that the local electoral area as drawn up by the committee has not been changed by this. It is an administrative issue and if Wexford County Council believes there is an economic, social or political reason it should be reversed, I am more than open to considering it.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply and welcome his remark that if a request is received from Wexford County Council, he will consider it. He might clarify whether he is talking about the county manager or the councillors making that decision. We did have a freedom of information request and it was clear that it had come from the Minister of State as opposed to anybody within the Department. We still have had no reason or explanation as to why he made the recommendation that Kilmuckridge be taken from the Enniscorthy municipal district as recommended by an independent boundary committee and that it was suddenly whipped into the Gorey area. We talk about town centres being the focus, yet we have an area one mile and a half south of Enniscorthy bridge that is now part of Gorey which is 35 km further north. People's minds there are completely boggled by it.

The Minister of State will understand people are asking questions. The independence and integrity of the electoral system are sacrosanct. On this island we have a very murky past in boundaries being changed for political reasons and I certainly hope that was not the case in this instance. At the same time, no explanation or reason has been given for this almost random decision. I assure the Minister of State that the idea of a contiguous coastline is flawed. Only a little further south, the eastern coastline was split into two separate municipal districts against the recommendation of the municipal district. There is an explanation for it in terms of Wexford being a stand-alone town, but Enniscorthy is the second biggest town in the county. It has a population of 12,000 and an historical town, with ties to the events of 1798 and 1916 and the first unfurling of the tricolour, although we share it with Waterford. I cannot describe the outrage felt there. There were mistakes. What we wanted in Wexford, the ideal that was working perfectly well, was three eights and a ten, but the independent boundary commission made its decision for its reasons. However, it was totally unacceptable for it to have been changed after that.

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I reiterate that I have written to the chairman requesting views not just from them but also from management and councillors in Wexford. More than half of the new Kilmuckridge area was previously in the Gorey district and there have been nine or ten changes to municipal districts across the country. Most of them are in respect of former boroughs, but, for instance, in County Kerry the Castleisland area and the Dingle area have been brought into one municipal district because of geographical factors similar to what was considered in Wexford. I am not disputing my role in ensuring we will have municipal districts that, rightly or wrongly, are more reflective of the lie of the land. The Deputy will know the villages and towns that anyone could list off in the northern part of the Kilmuckridge area that are far closer to Gorey. The process is that if there are strong reasons for a change in Wexford, I will have no difficulty in accepting them. However, I absolutely refute and believe it is disingenuous of the Deputy to bring into the House the argument about the independence of the electoral committee. We are not talking about an electoral boundary. The local electoral areas report was adopted in full. This is an administrative linking of two separate local electoral areas, whether it be Gorey and Kilmuckridge or Enniscorthy and Kilmuckridge. The independence of the committee's actions and the preserving of people's support for the independence of the committee's report should not be called into question. As I said, we are not talking about an electoral boundary. Any murky past about electoral boundaries, Tullymandering and everything else that happened has no bearing on this issue. It is about administering County Wexford. More than half of the new Kilmuckridge district was previously in the Gorey area. That is from where the decision came. That east coast part of Wexford, north of the town, is more associated with Gorey than any other town in County Wexford. If the Wexford local authority and its members and management have a strong view that it should be changed, it will be. I reiterate that the report of the committee on the electoral areas was adopted in full.