John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Kitt, back to the House. Like his senior colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Minister of State probably feels that very little can be done to address the points that were raised the last time we considered this section of the Bill. It is clear to everybody that the terms of reference given to the constituency commission have not been fulfilled. What has been produced here is a Bill that is based on a flawed report, to put it mildly. Everyone is aware that the terms of reference stated that, where possible, county boundaries should be kept sacrosanct. In terms of keeping county boundaries sacrosanct, we are all aware that local government, and many other groups, works on a county basis. The former health boards operated on the basis of counties.

The terms of reference given to this commission were broken by its first decision. I again highlight what the Minister said with regard to this issue when he came to the House. On the commission report he clearly stated:

The main features of the commission's report on Dáil constituencies are as follows. First, there should be no change in the existing level of Dáil membership, that is, 166 seats.

In taking that as its first decision, the commission broke its terms of reference. There is an onus on the Minister to ask the President to refer this Bill to the Supreme Court because that is where it will finish up. The terms of reference have been broken on the first decision taken by the commission.

The follow on to that is simple. If the first decision taken was to limit the number, it then made sure that it would break all the other terms of reference. County boundaries are strictly mentioned in the Bill yet parts of County Meath were put into the Louth boundary. The other part of it is in the Westmeath boundary. The county of Meath would have a sufficient population for approximately seven to eight seats. The terms of reference were then broken.

The terms of reference are also broken in that part of west Limerick is being put into the Kerry boundary. The acting chairman is aware that Kerry had the exact population for a five seat constituency. Limerick had sufficient numbers for it to be divided into constituencies. These are cases of the terms of reference being broken by the commission.

The most annoying aspect is that when it came to dealing with my county of Leitrim the commission decided to divide it — half into Roscommon and half into Sligo. The Sligo-Leitrim-Roscommon population justifies six seats. I accept its terms of reference did not allow the commission to go beyond five seaters but it could have left Leitrim as one constituency, put it in with Cavan as a four seater, put Sligo and Roscommon together and made another four seater, which would have been justified and the numbers would have worked out exactly.

The commission did not adhere to its terms of reference regarding county boundaries under any circumstances. That brings us back to what was said by the Minister here, namely, that that was the position. It took the decision to stay with 166 Members of Dáil Éireann rather than fulfil its full terms of reference by looking to preserving county boundaries.

I asked the Minister on Second Stage if he had sought an opinion from the Attorney General with regard to this issue. I do not know if the Minister of State can tell me whether it has been determined by the Attorney General but this Bill is based on a flawed commission report from a commission that did not adhere to its terms of reference. If that is the case, the Bill should be referred to the Supreme Court.

We have all heard the Murphy-McGrath case being used as a mechanism for justifying what was done. It is easy to draw lines and decide it should be proportional to numbers but somebody in Dublin who represents a four seat constituency could travel from one end of it to the other in 15 or 20 minutes. Someone representing a five seater like Mayo——