Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I was here for some of the debate on the Bill and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, has been dealing with this Bill. As Deputy Ellis said, one of the aspects this debate shows very clearly is that there is a very strong attachment in Ireland to county boundaries. That is understandable and I have the same issue in my county. The Minister made the point that the terms of reference of commissions are subordinate to the relevant constitutional provisions, which do not refer to counties. He quoted the High Court judgement of Mr. Justice Budd in the O'Donovan case and I have also quoted it previously in the Seanad and will do so again:

Although a system in the main based on counties has in fact been adopted, there is nothing in the Constitution about constituencies being based on counties. The Constitution does not say that in forming the constituencies according to the required ratio, that shall be done so far as is practicable having regard to county boundaries. There is no absolute prohibition on the breaching of county boundaries. Indeed, the experience has been that at times the constitutional provisions require such action, difficult though that may be.

That is on page 146 of the High Court judgement. The 2007 commission report is no different in that regard.

The House will be aware that the Minister is taking the opportunity in this Bill to update and improve the consultation processes followed by a commission in the course of its work. The Bill requires a commission to allow at least three months for the making of a submission to it. A commission has discretion as to the length of time allowed and this inevitably is influenced by the six-month time limit on a commission to produce its report. With future commissions commencing work on the basis of preliminary data, greater time can be made available for consultation with interested organisations and individuals and this will ensure a fuller opportunity for political and wider public input to the revision process. With the commission starting work on the preliminary figures there will also be under the Bill a longer time for the commission to develop and reflect on its proposals for constituency revision.

Senator Ellis raised the point about the Attorney General's advice. As he rightly said, there was advice on the preparation of the Bill. However, the Minister said he was accepting the commission's report in its entirety. There was no question of further advice. Senators raised other concerns and I understand the difficulties and concerns. The Minister has stated that constituency formation is not a perfect science and people do not always live in the areas which would enable constituencies to be drawn up which meet with general approval. The overriding constitutional requirement of equality of representation means breaches of obvious boundaries are unavoidable in certain cases. In examining the commission's recommendations I am in the same position as every Member of this House. I have no information over and above that set out in its report. In the revision process, someone's interests inevitably must be affected and that is the price we must pay for our democratic system.

We are all agreed that the job should be entrusted to a commission. It has done the job in the way it thought was best for it. Difficult choices had to be made. The commission marshalled the available options and made informed and reasoned recommendations. Members of this House and the Dáil would probably make a different choice, but we would all agree we will not return to the so-called gerrymanders of the past when a Minister revised constituencies. It will be a commission and I hope that will be acceptable to the Senators.