Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator McHugh for sharing his time. We should deal with the issues he has raised on Committee and Report Stages.

I welcome the Bill and welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is wrong for politicians to start play acting with the independence of a commission which makes these difficult choices every five years or so. We do not want to return to the past when this kind of nonsense occurred. The commission is now on a statutory basis, but it should not just be initiated when the census report is issued. It should operate on a long-term basis and should be removed from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It is wrong that an electoral commission that determines constituency boundaries should be based in any Department. It should be a separate body or agency and be independent of any Department.

When it comes to appointing the commission, all of the usual suspects are rounded up, the Clerk of the Dáil, the Clerk of the Seanad, a High Court judge, etc. Often these people have other responsibilities, not least in this House. Some of them are also members of the electoral offices commission. We should be more imaginative and put independent people onto this commission.

I suggest to the Minister of State that when submissions are being made to the commission, we should consider allowing them to be made in public. I expect, for example, that a substantial lobby from County Leitrim will, rightly, make submissions to the next commission. The commission should meet in public session to take on board the public submissions. Currently, submissions are made in writing, but the commission is not entitled to meet in public the people making them. Public sessions would be a useful addition to the work of the commission and would put it on an independent basis. The commission should not just operate when a census report has been issued, it should operate on a 24/7 basis. It should be a standalone agency with a remit to deal with the issues our colleagues have raised about the integrity of the electoral register, etc.

Dublin is still substantially underrepresented and should have two extra Deputies. We have been aware of this problem for the past 15 years. The population is growing so why do we set the bar so rigorously in terms of 166 Deputies? So what if another three to six Deputies are elected to the other House. We must reflect the increasing population structure. Based on the figures available to me, Dublin has two Deputies fewer than it should have and this is an issue the next commission must address.

I welcome the report of the commission which does us a significant service. However, we should be more imaginative about who we ask to do the work. We should not just round up the usual suspects. There are many other independently-minded public servants who would fit the bill in terms of trying to produce a fair and equitable boundary system. We need to be more imaginative and put the commission on a full-time statutory basis to do other work on a constant basis, rather than just asking it to work when the census report comes out.