Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

There is much sympathy in the House with the case of Leitrim. I come from what is in another sense a partitioned county. I have sometimes felt it was partitioned in 1838 as the most troubled county in Ireland, and that perhaps there was an element of divide and rule about that. However, there are certain practicalities in that regard.

The question raised was where the counties would be without the GAA, which is a sound point. It is one of the great ironies of history that the counties that were quintessentially English creations are today quintessentially GAA creations. However, if we did not have the GAA, every other Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government would change county boundaries. None of us would know from one year to the next the name of the administrative unit we were supposed to be living in. That is what has happened in large areas across the water due to endless local government reform. In many ways, I would say: "Thank God for the GAA."

One point relevant to the future involves the issue of the minus 11% tolerance. In the particular circumstances, although it had not been lived with before, perhaps we should have lived with it to keep Leitrim together. With regard to the total for all the constituencies, it would not have taken that much skin off anyone's nose.