Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 5, column 2, to delete all words from and including "Carlow", in line 4 down to and including "Wicklow." in line 6 and substitute "Carlow.".

The Minister and I have a conflict of interest in regard to this amendment and he will be glad to know I do not intend to press it to a vote. I have put it down as a marker because although I accept the electoral commission's recommendation, I and many people in Carlow are unhappy about it. I acknowledge Senator McDowell's point that we should not get too obsessed with county boundaries. However, it is worth noting the constitutional stipulation that, where possible, county boundaries should be respected. This is not always possible and is generally impossible where counties include cities.

People in the area of Carlow to which I refer, which includes Hacketstown, Clonmore, Rathvilly and Ballyconnell, elect representatives to Carlow County Council, are represented on Carlow VEC, participate in the Carlow community games and are involved in GAA teams whose players also play for the County Carlow football team. These places have a clear link with County Carlow. I acknowledge that the Minister and his fellow Wicklow representative, Deputy Timmins, serve this area well. However, other Wicklow Members do not give it the same level of attention.

When the electoral commission next considers the situation of County Carlow, I hope it will take account of the content of my amendments. In 1997, the commission accepted the point I and others made that there was a need, based on population, for the Wicklow constituency to incorporate part of Carlow in order to justify its allocation of Dáil seats. This is no longer the case, however, because there has been an explosion in the population of County Wicklow in recent years.

The difficulty is that if the section of County Carlow to which I refer is reincorporated into the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency, the population of that constituency will be such as to warrant more than five Dáil seats. In that case, a section of south County Kilkenny would have to be moved into the Waterford constituency. I would be pleased with such a development for political reasons but that is an issue for another day.