Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Brennan for sharing time. I welcome the Minister of State and pay tribute to his work as an MEP for a number of years and the contribution he made to the development of the EU at a critical time, in particular in the west of Ireland. I expect nothing less from him because he and I were apprentices in the Department of the Marine for a while. I am fully aware of the energy and dedication of the Minister of State and I wish him well in his work.

I cannot display the same level of welcome for the legislation even though I will support it. I hope this will be the last time there will ever be the configuration of constituencies that is in this legislation. There should be a uniform system throughout the EU for electing members, whether that be by way of single seat constituencies, a combination of single seats with a list system or some configuration which would avoid the kind of situation that pertains in the constituency to which I belong.

That constituency extends from Loop Head in west Clare to Malin Head. The last time I made that journey was during the by-election in Donegal and it took about six and a half or seven hours. I do not believe this is how constituencies should be arranged. There should be single or twin seat constituencies of a size that allows representatives to cover the area and be familiar with the people and the issues involved. The current system does not provide the best representation and in my view, is the reason there has been such a poor turnout in European elections over the last number of years, a turnout that is falling consistently since Ireland joined the European Community.

County Clare was originally in the Connacht constituency and was subsequently put in with Munster. As a result of the link between the mid-west and the impact of the Limerick-Shannon area, Clare was taken out of the BMW region and now that it is back in the Connacht constituency, it has a very good case. I have been making some representations to the Minister of State to examine the possibility of Clare coming back into the BMW region for grant aid and assistance as was the case when Ireland joined the European Community.

I did not make representations to the last commission about the constituency boundaries because it was pointed out to me when I made previous representations that a legislative change was required in order for the commission to examine the possibility of single seat and twin seat constituencies as well as three, four and five seater configurations. I urge the Minister of State to use his best offices to convince his colleagues of its desirability. There should be all-party agreement on this matter and I believe many members of the other parties agree with my views. Manageable constituencies should be created so that representatives could identify with local needs. At present if I wish to make representations I may have to travel as far as Donegal to meet an MEP. In my view, this is totally unnecessary because the system can be changed.

I support the Bill but I hope it will be the last time the House will see a piece of legislation such as this. I ask the Minister of State to use his influence with his colleagues to change the Electoral Act to enable the commission to examine twin seat or single seat constituencies or perhaps a list system. This would allow Ireland to conform with the practice in Europe. The least we can have is a uniform system of elections throughout Europe to the European Parliament. The system in Ireland is crazy. We should be in line with other members states. A common system of elections would give a good idea of people's attitudes to Europe.

I emphasise that there has been a falling turnout in European elections since we joined the European Community. There was the situation of going to the people a second time in a recent referendum. The size of the huge constituencies means that the people are not able to keep in regular contact with their MEPs and this would not be the case if there were single or twin seat constituencies. The political parties would find it far easier to manage elections and ensure a good choice of candidates. In the long term, the best interests of the European Parliament will be served by changing the system and putting in place one that is more accessible to the ordinary people who may then come out to vote as they have not done in previous elections.