John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

One point needs to be made in response to a number of issues that have been mentioned, namely, that existing legislation states that in regard to general elections one cannot go above five seats. That is the sort of flexibility the commission would require, but there are genuine political difficulties in that regard because for obvious reasons the two biggest parties, namely, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, are not too keen on six-seat constituencies. In the same way, the Green Party is keen on six seaters and above because it gives greater proportionality and it gives smaller parties a greater opportunity. Be that as it may, this is where we are at and the legislation states clearly that we cannot go above that.

We need to put on our thinking caps in regard to the electoral commission and ask whether we want representation, for example in Leitrim, or to maintain county boundaries, or whether we should be looking at a system that allows that flexibility and to go above five seats. It is my view that we should. Then the representation will be achieved. The problem is one may not achieve the representation one particularly likes. That is the reality.