Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

I am a Member of this House once more as a consequence of the foresight of the Constituency Commission. I should mention that I was elected with the permission of Members of the Oireachtas and members of local authorities throughout the country. I consider it to be a great privilege and honour to be a Member of the Seanad. Having said that, politics is defined as the art of the possible.

The Title of the Bill being considered by the House states that it is "an Act to revise Dáil and European Parliament constituencies, to provide for the number of Members to be elected for such constituencies, to amend the law relating to the Constituency Commission, and for those and other purposes to amend the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 and certain other enactments". I am tempted to propose an amendment to the Bill on behalf of the people of north Westmeath, with whom I was bred, born and reared. I have been privileged to represent that area for the past 27 years in the Dáil and the Seanad. I also represented my local area on Westmeath County Council for more than 18 years.

The wisdom of the Constituency Commission leaves a lot to be desired. I mean that in the kindest sense. When the terms of reference of the commission were drawn up, instructing it to observe county boundaries wherever possible, I did not imagine that such little wisdom would be displayed in respect of north Westmeath. Senators have commented that the parliamentary representation of the people of the Dublin West constituency is below the national average. I suggest that 10,000 people in a few small townlands and estates in the Clonee area of the constituency could have been moved into the Meath East constituency, rather than moving 31% of the land area of north Westmeath into a new constituency. The area to which I refer is thinly populated, just like the Cathaoirleach's home area.

It was a serious misjudgment to move part of north Westmeath into the Meath West constituency. It disenfranchised people in north Westmeath. That part of the county did not have a resident Oireachtas Member for many years. In 2002, I was honoured and privileged to be elected to represent the people of north Westmeath. At the time, north Westmeath was included in the then constituency of Westmeath. I will give the House an idea of what it means for such an area to have a Deputy on the Government benches. The people of Mullingar town are aware of a project in respect of which a site has been purchased, tender documents have been agreed and a contractor has been appointed. The Minister for Education and Science will open the head office in Mullingar, which will be staffed by more than 320 people. I can say with certainty that the project in question would not be as advanced if the people of the area had not elected me to represent them in the Dáil, on the Government side, at the 2002 general election.