Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I fully accept the Minister of State's bona fides, of which there is no question. We are all in agreement that the independence and integrity of the commission must be maintained. However, I will attempt to illustrate that perhaps there is a requirement for the Government to examine whether the commission model is now fit for purpose. After all, it was introduced on foot of a political decision in 1979.

I referred earlier to the second Electoral Act introduced by Sean T. O'Ceallaigh in 1934 but the next Electoral Act, introduced by Seán MacEntee, was not introduced until 1947 and it rectified the issue by not breaching county boundaries in any case. This arrangement was continued in the 1959 Act, but it had a fatal flaw. In introducing it the Minister for Local Government, Niall Blayney, argued that not only the population but also the land area of each constituency should be considered on the grounds that "it should be made as convenient as possible for a Deputy to keep in touch with his constituents." The Act thus allocated proportionately more Deputies to sparsely populated western counties than built up areas such as Dublin. Although the Act was passed, considerable controversy surrounded it. A case was taken to the High Court by Dr. John O'Donovan who contested the constitutionality of the Act which was struck down. According to Mr. Coakley, while the O'Donovan case was a landmark one in 1961, it also turned out to be an unfortunate one in that it prevented one possible form of abuse, the disproportionate allocation of seats to areas in which the governing party might have been strong, but at the cost of facilitating another, straightforward gerrymandering through boundaries manipulation. As we know, in the case of a succeeding Electoral Act in 1974, the last Act to be drafted with political direction, there were many accusations. The Kevin Boland Bill was referred to as a "Bolander", while the Bill introduced by James Tully was referred to as a "Tullymander". The three major parties were somehow seen by the public to be contributing to the manipulation of constituency boundaries for their own electoral benefit. Therefore, by 1977 the noise level had become a crescendo. There was a recognition by politicians in both Houses that there was a need for another model. In 1979 the constituency commission model was introduced.

The Minister of State and I are ad idem on this point. I believe politicians from all parties support the view that in so far as is possible we should retain county boundaries, but plainly this has not been the case. Statistics indicate the erosion of the argument made on the foundation of the State in the early 1920s in the Electoral Acts that county boundaries should be maintained in forming administrative units. By 1934 it was beginning to erode and by the time the commission came into being in 1979, it had been eroded to the point where we had the most extraordinary combinations.

I ask the Minister of State to convey to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government my suggestion there is a need for an analysis of whether the commission model is now fit for purpose. Perhaps there should be an internal analysis in his Department subsequent to the passing of the Bill and prior to the setting up of a constituency commission in the future, on which we should make a start now.