Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have this opportunity to make a few points on the Bill. Prior to doing so, I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, to the public Gallery and encourage all members of the Cabinet to come to the Seanad and hear first hand the quality of debate and scrutiny of legislation that takes place here. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Kitt, to the House as this is my first opportunity to do so.

My main issue with the Bill concerns the situation in Sligo-North Leitrim and Leitrim in general. I firmly believe it can never be allowed happen again that a county is left without a county man or woman to represent its people's interests in the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is wholly inappropriate to do that. It has happened because we are designing a set of clinical parameters within which we must operate.

On the day Deputy Cowen became Taoiseach of this country, he said we should not be bound or restricted by independent reports. I agree with his assertion in that regard. While it is important to have a level of independence in drawing up electoral boundaries, they are brought back to the Oireachtas for us to debate their merits and consider the difficulties that arise from sticking to the parameters which are clinical.

If we were to focus specifically on numbers of population alone, the factual position would be that in 20 or 30 years' time, we would have 100 TDs in the greater Pale or Leinster area with a concentration around Cork and Limerick and none in the west. What would we do then? Many Departments, State agencies and other bodies would have the west and north west as the sole destination and weekend retreat for those in the gin and tonic belts in Dublin and elsewhere who could look forward to going there and perhaps seeing the likes of Peig Sayers looking out over a half door, smoking a pipe and having a pint of Guinness. However, much more than that happens in the west. We are no less contributors to this great State.

Whatever has to be done must be done to take due cognisance of county boundaries to ensure that all Twenty-six Counties, and in the fullness of time I hope all Thirty-two Counties, would have at least one representative in the Houses of the Oireachtas in order that he or she can bring to the table the unique views of his or her county colleagues in all the relevant debates on legislation and issues of public concern.

Some years ago the national spatial strategy, of which I am a huge fan, was published to great acclaim, but I regret it has only emerged and been mentioned from time to time. When a policy is being pursued or a new measure is being introduced, if it is consistent with the spatial strategy, the Ministers in the relevant Departments will say it is in line with the spatial strategy. When it is not in line with the strategy, they will say a sufficient population is not in the region to support it. That is the case, but if we were to adopt that approach, we might as well shut down the west. We might as well say there is no reason Bord Gáis Éireann should spread its network because there are insufficient people in the region or there is no reason the ESB network should upgrade its facilities in lower populated parts of the country. We might well ask why are we rolling out broadband to the western region. If we were to follow through on the same kind of parameters, which must be followed by the electoral commission, we would effectively shut down the least populated parts of the country.

The spatial strategy envisaged the creation of capacity before demand and that, rather than having the conurbation that has become the eastern region around Dublin, pressure would be taken off cities such as Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Galway, Limerick and Waterford by other gateway cities such as Sligo, Letterkenny and gateway towns in the centre of the country playing their part in terms of the increase in population predicted in coming years. I would like there to be a return of focus to that policy, but it must be a prerequisite that we seek to invest in all parts of these counties equitably and not merely based on a per capita criterion, which is flawed in itself. We must begin to spread equally all levels of infrastructural investment throughout this country and create extra capacity in those parts of the country that are better placed to take it rather than only in the larger cities where costs are higher and quality and standards of living are under more pressure because of the numbers already living there.

I ask the Minister of State to take on board a few of those points. Given the part of the country from which I come, I stress that the Leitrim situation can never be repeated. My colleague, Senator Ellis, raised this issue on the last occasion we discussed this Bill. That is not to suggest the people of Leitrim are not getting a sterling level of service from the Deputies who represent the constituency in which it falls, including the county of Leitrim, in the other House, or from the Senators in this House. However, it is only right and proper that they should have one of their own representatives, from whatever party or none, representing their views in the Lower House and in this House.