Dan Boyle (Green Party)

This Bill is narrow in focus. It does not go anywhere near meeting many of the commitments in the programme for Government on electoral and democratic reform. There is already a clear commitment to establish an independent electoral commission and I look forward to that legislation. There is also a commitment to local government reform and democratic reform in general. The Minister will publish a White Paper soon and I hope it will help that process.

Recent court judgments allow individual citizens to participate properly in elections, some of which will be held this year and this is a welcome change. The idea of individual citizens choosing to forsake a political party banner should be a consideration in every democratic system. The Bill proposes a combination of showing a degree of support that would allow a nomination along with a relatively small charge. In the old system as I recollect it, the court judgment decided that the money was used as a barrier to people taking part in elections. The fee for European elections was £5,000 at the time of the judgment.

There is a value in the retention of the current electoral commissions in that they are not set up on a needs basis and therefore the formation of electoral boundaries will happen as a matter of course. However, this work needs to be informed by changing the terms of reference on an ongoing basis.

There is a curious situation with regard to the European elections. Because Ireland has 12 seats in four constituencies of three seats each, my party is at a particular disadvantage even though we have won two seats in European elections in the past in five-seat and four-seat constituencies, when Ireland had 15 MEPs. There is a case to be made that for the following European elections in five years' time, we should at least debate the notion of a 12-seat Ireland constituency. While PRSTV has served this country well as it is one of the better systems in terms of reflecting in seat numbers how people have voted, Ireland now has one of the least democratic systems for electing MEPs.

I refer to the report of the commission set up a number of years ago and which the Minister, by obligation and by custom and practice, and I am pleased he operates on that basis, is bound to accept. This is the same principle that informs the boundary report on general elections. I know there are ongoing concerns about how particular areas are represented and under-represented. In the first instance there is a constitutional difficulty to overcome in that the Constitution refers to the minimum number of seats required in a constituency. I would not be averse to such a debate or such a constitutional change. Perhaps the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitution could examine this aspect and also whether the time is right for introducing different electoral systems. This would be a useful debate. The Constitution does not specify the upper number of seats per constituency. The Minister has been obliged to accept the report which refers to three-seat, four-seat and five-seat constituencies.

In the early life of this country some constituencies had nine and 11 seats. I would like future boundary commissions to consider not having County Meath divided into two constituencies but rather to have a six-seater constituency——