Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

The whole process starts with the census results, which are the starting point for the consideration of the proportionality of votes in each part of the country. In discussing the commission which gave us the constituencies under discussion, we are talking about a Government decision to draft a Bill. That decision was made and, as I said, it included a decision to accept the commission's report in its entirety.

On a general point, some Senators suggested alternatives to the scheme of constituencies that was recommended by the commission in its report and I know some are clearly unhappy with the recommendations — I said I might do it differently, as would other Senators. However, there is a long-established practice of implementing the recommendations of the Constituency Commission in full.

Senator Hannigan referred to the late Jim Tully, a former Minister, whom I knew. When he had the power to make changes, he told me he was doing me a favour. He did not do me any favour, but that is the way politics goes and one has to take the consistency one is faced with. If we reject some of the commission's recommendations, we are reverting to the partisan approach of the past, where, irrespective of which Government was in power, Governments tried to take advantage of the situation in which they found themselves. Even minor changes to the commission's recommendations would represent the first step back to that unsatisfactory situation.

Mr. Justice Clark, in his 2007 judgment, emphasised the urgent obligation on the Oireachtas to revise constituencies as soon as it becomes clear from a census that the existing constituencies no longer have the level of proportionality the Constitution requires.

We have had a very good discussion on the section. We have dealt with parishes and counties, and Senator Hannigan even talked about dioceses, which covers everything. As Senator Glynn said, the parish is something to which we are all very attached and happy to see promoted, whether it is with regard to the GAA or other developments. My key point is that we are here to implement the recommendations of the commission in their entirety.