Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

Yes. It divided us right down. The constituency included two provinces, Leinster and Connacht, two health board areas and two tourism areas. Everything was separate. However, the commission had no regard for any submissions I made to it. The same applies to part of County Offaly, where the President of the United States has roots. Part of that area is gone into Tipperary, which is very inconvenient for the people of Offaly. It is a great opportunity for Offaly that the great grandson of a native of County Offaly is President of the United States. That the area has gone into Tipperary means they are not happy there, however.

There is a better way of doing this job and it must be examined very carefully. The political parties must examine this situation in the future. The people of County Leitrim feel terribly disenfranchised although they have hard-working Deputies who do their utmost for them in Sligo-Leitrim in Deputies Scanlon, Perry and Devins and in Longford-Roscommon in the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Finneran, and Deputies Feighan and Naughten. They also have Senator Ellis working very hard in County Leitrim. There is no other resident Senator working in the area. I can say without fear or favour that Senator Ellis has a full-time constituency office and has given as good a service as any Deputy would give. He was nominated by the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, who recognised that Leitrim had to have a representative in the Oireachtas.

I would not hold my breath regarding the changes. This will not be the change for the general election in 2011 or whenever it is. They will be due to numerical and population changes. The change to the economy will affect the population in different areas through unemployment, and other issues will affect the outcome of the next Constituency Commission.

Concerning the European constituencies, with a certain contradiction I welcome Longford and Westmeath to the North-West constituency. It gives an opportunity for somebody in that area. There was a Leitrim MEP in the past and he survived the situation where he had no hinterland such as any candidate will have now. It is a very unwieldy constituency and will be very difficult to represent, but I wish the MEPs every success.

I decided to give my personal experience of this area. It is very unfair on the Leader of this House that his area went into Meath. It is very unfair on sitting Deputies whose constituencies have been divided in such a way that they are completely disenfranchised and they live in one constituency and represent another. The same applies to the local government changes where some places are very unsatisfactory. For example, in County Roscommon an area has been created, as a consequence of which one of my colleagues, Councillor Paddy Kilduff, must change to another area to be re-elected, he hopes, next June. There are question marks against such divisions also. They are very unfair on those who have served the public. Some regard should be had to the position of sitting Deputies or councillors in an area in order that they are not removed from their electoral base. It is grossly unfair on them if they are left out in the cold in that way. Senator Cassidy was particularly badly treated in that regard. Some Deputies also lost out.