Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, to the House. I also welcome the Bill. It is fitting that the Minister of State is introducing the Bill here as he has served in the European Parliament, having been directly elected twice to that body for the constituency of Connacht-Ulster. When the former Taoiseach, Deputy John Bruton, appeared before the House recently, I asked him how he thought the European constituencies might be revised. I had proposed 13 single-seat constituencies, and he thought that perhaps two-seat constituencies would be the best on offer. However, an amendment was tabled in the Dáil within the past few days proposing 13 seats based on the whole country, as happens elsewhere. The arrangement is fairly satisfactory regarding those constituencies. The Bill's purpose is really to give effect to the changes in the constituencies and the Council decisions of 25 June and 23 December 2002 concerning the election of Members of the European Parliament. As the Minister said in his address, in 1997 the Constituency Commission had various names for those constituencies such as Dublin, Leinster and Munster, the last of which included Clare at that time, and Connacht-Ulster, which did not include Clare. The new names are now Dublin, East, South, and North-West.

I am not sure I agree that adding the name "Clare" to Connacht-Ulster would be a major problem. I have heard and read that undue prominence may be given to a single county in the context of a much larger European constituency, but we should not worry about that and instead give Clare its day in the sun. We can take an example from the GAA, which is very good at naming clubs after saints. If they do not find the name of a saint, often they put the names of some of the townlands or villages in their parish together. Tipperary is particularly good at having long names. However, we will probably have to go with "North-West", as it has now been agreed. I understand that Leinster is the same, apart from Dublin, which is a separate constituency. However, it is very difficult to have those rigid demarcations. I notice that part of the East constituency will be south of the South constituency; there are some inconsistencies there. However, as the Minister said, we may have to re-examine this issue after 2004, and when the census takes place in 2006. He has said that if other countries join the European Union, we may see a reduction in the number of our European seats to 12. We may have not only to revise the constituencies but rename them, and I look forward to the outcome of that.

The Minister said quite rightly that there are issues in section 2 of this Bill regarding the disqualification of persons who are ineligible to be candidates. We know the existing regulations which apply to membership of the Dáil or people who are citizens of another member state — nationals of a member state other than Ireland or the UK who were deprived through an individual criminal law decision of the right to be a candidate. The Minister has inserted new disqualifications into this Bill regarding a member of the European Court of Justice, a member of the board of directors of the European Central Bank, the Ombudsman of the European Communities and an official of the European Central Bank.

I would like to raise again with the Minister the question of the dual mandate, about which Senator Bannon spoke. The Government has allowed a derogation on this issue, and it has now decided that it will be a once-off derogation for this year's elections only. From the next general election, any dual mandate involving both Parliaments will be ended. This is not currently a major issue. In practice, the exercise of the dual mandate in Ireland has become limited in time and number. The Minister said that in 1994 four Members of the Irish Parliament were elected to the European Parliament. In the 1999 European elections, only two dual-mandate MEPs were elected. This follows on from issues we have discussed in thisHouse regarding the dual mandate for Members of the Oireachtas and members of local authorities.

Senator Bannon also raised the issue of by-elections. Unlike many other Parliaments, all vacancies in the Dáil are filled by by-election. If we were to change that system, we would have to amend the Constitution. It is interesting that the last time a Government won a by-election was 1982, in my own constituency of Galway East. There can be difficulties. No Government has won such a by-election since. However, by-elections can have significant destabilising effects on the country, for example, where a minority Government is in power. That could certainly have adverse consequences for the political system. We all know the situation here in 1981 and 1982, when we had three general elections within 18 months.

One of the questions I considered when I read this Bill was the counting of votes. In my experience of being a candidate on two occasions — that of the Minister is even greater — there is a delay in getting results from the count centres. Five years ago we had all the local authority results available but had to wait several days for the result of the count for the European election in what was then Connacht-Ulster. Obviously, electronic voting should expedite the result but I notice from some of the information I received that the count will not start until the Sunday after the Friday election. I hope that we can start early on the Sunday if we must wait until then.

There is an issue of waiting until all countries have their voting completed throughout Europe. Perhaps the Minister might respond to this. I do not think we have complete information on what other countries are doing. Of course, they have different voting systems. It is important that we get results as quickly as possible, even if we get them unofficially, as it will allow us to let people know the position. I understand that, similar to what we discussed here yesterday regarding electronic voting and counting, each result will be shown count by count as the results become available. I ask that we try to get those results as quickly as possible, particularly for the candidates, in order that they need not wait so long to hear their fate.

I certainly welcome this Bill and it is important that all the provisions we discussed are put in place. As I did yesterday, I extend my best wishes to all the candidates taking part in the European Parliament elections.