Results 19,261-19,280 of 26,350 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for her amendment and for her letter which I read, and we responded to. As she outlined, it proposes to amend section 3(2) by replacing Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage with An Coimisiún Toghcháin. It is a standard provision, as she said, and that has been inserted into constituency revision Bills going right back to 1923. It does provide a...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: If the Deputy could resist the temptation.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank Deputy Bacik. I note the intention of the amendment, which is a little more prescriptive than the other amendments. I will detail in my response the reasons I will not accept it. However, I suggest that there is a way forward with it. Deputy Bacik has outlined what she wants to do. Included in the amendment is a request that An Coimisiún Toghcháin undertake detailed...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Maybe I will wait. Is Deputy Bacik moving amendment No. 3?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: We have not got to amendment No. 3 yet. I have a lot of sympathy for the point Deputies O'Callaghan and Bacik raised. There are other issues. If one goes to Google Maps one will see a pin with pretty much every TD or Senator on the Internet. I have seen it. People know where we live and I get that, but some elements of society exploit this. We have seen more protests at the houses of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Yes. I will be very brief on it. Obviously, Deputies Smith, Farrell and I share a constituency. I am also acutely aware I am the Minister responsible for this legislation and since boundary reports were published and brought forward as proposals, since 1980 there have been no changes to the report itself, while recognising the points the Deputies have made. There may have been amendments...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I do remember that being mentioned. The name was not changed at the time while it was debated but my officials will double-check in advance of Report Stage. Obviously Deputies retain the right to submit further amendments but I want to be very open with the committee that I am not inclined to accept any on the changing of names even be that a name and it might put the onus on the three of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Speaking as a TD in a constituency that has gone now from a five-seater to a three-seater I understand what has been said by the Deputy. Leaving my own views aside, I am not proposing to accept the amendment but appreciate what has been put forward. There is a difference between this amendment versus the previous one because the commission has clearly detailed that this is an area that it...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I welcome, particularly as, thankfully, the population of the country is growing and will see future changes. We got to look at how many TDs and do we continue to grow that with the ratio, and that is set out in Bunreacht na hÉireann, how do we do that and manage an ever growing population. This is something that I know all of us in this room welcome. It is trying to provide certainty...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The commission has set out specifically that it intends to carry out research into the issue of representation and the manner in which the overall number of TDs is determined, as I have mentioned, in the context of a rising population. For next week, with the commission coming in, I am certain this will be a matter that members of this committee and the TDs who are coming in to speak at it...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy has asked a good question. The commission has issued its draft research programme for people to feed into. We are not restricting the commission. It has set out its work programme. A view has been articulated here and in the House as to what people's views are, particularly in light of an ever growing population. The commission is going to look at this specific matter. Its...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Yes. The commission published its draft research programme completely independent of me or of input from ourselves. The commission is going to undertake that. That is the importance of having it.