John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the Minister's problem. I suppose not many of us appreciate that some of our colleagues have had their areas cut in two. We all accept this happens. My gripe with the commission concerns its report. The commission was given terms of reference that stated that county boundaries should, where possible, be sacrosanct. However, it broke the county boundaries in many places and made many unwarranted changes to constituencies throughout the country.

For example, my county was divided in two and has been further divided recently. This ensures that no party can elect a candidate in Leitrim because some 15,000 of the population of Leitrim are lumped in with Roscommon and 15,000 in with Sligo. The commission could have made far simpler changes. The figures would fall exactly in place if Leitrim and Cavan were combined as a four-seater constituency. Perhaps the Minister would agree with me on another thing that could have been done, but the terms of reference did not allow it. The figures for Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon fall exactly on the button for a six-seater constituency. We probably should have put that suggestion to the Minister earlier before the Bill came to the House, but if it was done it would mean changing the terms of reference.

The big gripe for everybody is the breaking up of counties, for example Senator Cassidy's county. North Westmeath has been put into Meath West. A portion of east Meath has been put into the constituency of Louth. To me, it is totally ridiculous to have parts of three different counties in one constituency and shows the commission did not live within its terms of reference. West Limerick has been put into the constituency of Kerry North despite the fact that County Kerry on its own justified being a five-seat constituency.

I do not know what way to describe the commission. It is a good job we have privilege or we could be taken to task. To put it mildly, the commission was negligent in doing this. It took 5,000 people, not 5,000 votes, in south Offaly and shoved them into Tipperary North. It broke its terms of reference across the board. Yet when we seek to know why it did this, we are not able to get the information.

My honest opinion is that if the Bill is challenged, the commission will have to put up or shut up. It will have to show the reasoning behind what it did or it will have to be referred back to the Minister to deal with it again which could involve a new commission. The changes in population in certain areas since the previous general election or census already warrant change. We have seen population decline and people emigrating. We see all sorts of problems.

I want to get to the root of how the boundary commission came up with the decisions it made throughout the country and not alone in the Leitrim scenario. Of the submissions to the boundary commission, 74% came from County Leitrim. They came from across the political spectrum and not from one side or the other. In doing this, the boundary commission has left every one of us involved in this in limbo.

I can understand Senator Donohoe stating that increases might not be what would be accepted. This is grand if one lives in an urban constituency. However, let us take some of the sprawling constituencies in the west. As time progresses, the west and rural Ireland will continue to lose seats to the detriment of the people represented. It is easy for someone in Dublin who is not more that ten or 15 minutes from one end of his or her constituency. One would be better off going from Dublin to Cork than going from Blacksod to Cong in Mayo. The areas and distances involved in some constituencies are frightening.

I welcome the Minister's statement that he will change the situation with regard to terms of reference and that rather than changing areas that the number of seats might be changed.