James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. The Taoiseach said in the Dáil on 27 April that this would be the last Electoral (Amendment) Bill in the life of the Government, which is to say it will be the last before the next general election. While essentially dealing with the implementation of the recommendations of the report of the Constituency Commission, published in January 2004, relating to the revision of the Dáil constituencies for the next general election, the Bill is a blatant attempt by the Minister to shake and finally bury some of the appalling miscalculations of his predecessor, Deputy Cullen.

The main recommendations of the boundary commission have resulted in the creation of five new constituencies and the replacement of four existing ones. The report also changed 23 constituencies and retained 15 existing ones. However, the Bill also allows for the reinstallation of certain electoral expenses which the Minister of State has said were inadvertently deleted from the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004. It is no secret that strange and incomprehensible events took place during the tenure of the previous Minister, Deputy Cullen, and the inadvertent removal of important details from that Act is just as incredible as the same Minister forking out more than €50 million of taxpayers' money on prehistoric electronic machines.

The inclusion of these provisions in the Bill represents a fudging that should not have happened.