Derek McDowell (Labour)

The Minister has made some very interesting points regarding the level of representation, particularly in rural Ireland. I accept that if, for example, one made a constituency out of the entire county of Donegal, it would become quite difficult geographically for someone to represent such a large constituency. That consideration does not apply in urban areas such as Dublin, where constituencies are very small, geographically speaking. There is a different dynamic at work. It is a fact not unique to Ireland that in urban areas there tends to be a greater diversity of views than in rural areas. More parties are organised than would be typical in rural areas. An argument can be made to provide for a different structure.

In the past we typically had different structures for urban and rural areas, with five-seaters in the cities, while three-seaters were until recently almost exclusively a rural phenomenon, for geographical reasons as much as anything else. That has begun to change now, since the north side of Dublin now has largely three-seat constituencies, something that probably suits my party, so I am not commenting from a specifically party political point of view. Looking at Dublin — along with Cork, Limerick and Waterford by this stage — there is an argument that there is a diversity of political views among the population and that, ideally, all other things being equal, those should be represented in the Dáil. I know that the terms of reference are set down in the 1997 Act, but when we come to do this again, there is an argument that, in urban areas, we should predominantly have four-seaters rather than three-seaters.