Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012 is to provide for the number of Members of Dáil Éireann, revise Dáil constituencies in the light of the results of census 2011 and provide for the number of Members to be elected for such constituencies. In the programme for Government we committed to reducing the number of Deputies following the publication of the results of the 2011 census of population. A first step towards achieving this was taken in the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2011, in which the range for the total number of Members of the Dáil was set at not less than 153 and not more than 160. The Bill provides for a total number of 158 Members of the Dáil and delivers on the programme for Government. We will see this change in the 32nd Dáil.

In debating and deciding on the Bill the Oireachtas will meet its constitutional obligation to review and revise constituencies with due regard to changes in the distribution of population. We have legislative provision for supporting the Oireachtas in this task. The Electoral Act 1997 provides for the establishment of a constituency commission and for that commission to report to the Ceann Comhairle. The most recent commission reported to him on 21 June 2012. The Government gave consideration to the recommendations of the commission and agreed to implement them. The Bill provides for this.

While the Oireachtas has in the Electoral Act 1997 made additional provisions for constituency reviews and revisions, it is the provisions in the Constitution which have primacy. Bunreacht na hÉireann makes clear and distinct provision for the membership of Dáil Éireann. Article 16.2.2^o provides that: "The number of members shall from time to time be fixed by law, but the total number of members of Dáil Éireann shall not be fixed at less than one member for each thirty thousand of the population or at more than one member for each twenty thousand of the population". During the years the ratio has tended to be at a lower to middle end of the scale. With 166 Members and based on the 2011 population, there is one Member to every 27,640 of the population. The ratio was 25,541 per Member at the last revision. As a result of the Bill, the ratio will be one Member to every 29,040 of the population. While this is the highest ever ratio in the State, it is within the constitutional limit.

Article 16.2.3° of the Constitution provides that: "The ratio between the number of members to be elected at any time for each constituency and the population of each constituency, as ascertained at the last preceding census, shall, so far as it is practicable, be the same throughout the country". This is not currently the case. For example, the population to Member ratio, based on the results of census 2011, in the constituency of Laoighis-Offaly is 11% above the national average, while in Kildare South, it is 9% above. In Kildare North it is more than 8% above the national average. At the same time, it is 10% below the national average in Dublin North Central, 8% below in Dublin South Central and more than 7% below in Limerick city. The ratio between the number of Members and the population of each constituency, based on the most recent census, is not the same throughout the country. This requirement is qualified in the Constitution by the phrase "as far as practicable".

The Bill addresses the need for the ratio to be the same so far as it is practicable by providing for an arrangement of constituencies that allows for a high level of parity of representation. In all of the constituencies specified in the Bill the variance from the national average representation of one Member to every 29,040 of the population is within 5%. The national average is based on the total population of the State as ascertained in census 2011 divided by 158, the number of Deputies to be in the next Dáil.

This constitutional provision was considered by the courts in two cases in 1961 - the High Court case of John O'Donovan v. the Attorney General and the Supreme Court reference case relating to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 1961. It was considered again in the High Court case taken by Deputies McGrath and Murphy in 2007 when it was argued that the constituencies on which the general election was being fought at the time did not comply with the requirement in Article 16 of the Constitution. In none of these cases did the courts quantify a precise degree of equality of representation required by the Constitution.

Article 16.2.4° of the Constitution provides that "The Oireachtas shall revise the constituencies at least once in every twelve years, with due regard to changes in distribution of the population". This, in effect, requires that constituencies be revised whenever population changes ascertained in a census lead to population-Deputy ratios in individual constituencies that are significantly out of line with the national average. That is the case and the Oireachtas must respond accordingly.

Provision is made in section 5 of the Electoral Act 1997 for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to set up a commission to report on Dáil and European constituencies on the publication of the census report setting out the preliminary census result. The terms of reference of the commission are specified in the Act. These are, of course, subordinate to the relevant constitutional provisions.

The commission that reported in June 2012 was the fourth commission established under the 1997 Act. This was the first occasion on which a statutory commission was required to carry out a review of constituencies on the basis of a reduced number of Members of Dáil Éireann. It was also the first statutory commission established with authority to work on the publication of preliminary census results. This was in response to the 2007 High Court judgment in the Murphy-McGrath case. The court in that case had regard to the constitutional requirements and the high quality of the Central Statistics Office preliminary population data. It concluded that consideration should be given to the initiation of constituency revisions on publication of the CSO preliminary report on a census, with the revision work being completed when the final data were available. In 2009 the Oireachtas responded to that judgment by amending the Electoral Act 1997 to provide for the earlier establishment of a constituency commission.

The starting point, therefore, for the work of the constituency commission I established in the summer of 2011 was the preliminary census results. The commission remarks in its report that, in the event, no material differences emerged between the preliminary and final census results, but the ability to begin the preparatory work greatly facilitated the commission's timely completion of its mandate. It reported that the initial work of analysis of the effects of population changes and the reduction in membership was undertaken by reference to the preliminary census results published on 30 June 2011. The recommendations from this work were then formulated and confirmed on the basis of the definitive census results published on 29 March 2012. The report on the final results of the 2011 census of population showed the total population of the State as 4.59 million, an increase of 8.2% on the 2006 population. The commission had three months after the publication of these results within which to complete its work.

I will outline the main features of the commission's reports regarding Dáil constituencies. The commission recommended that the number of Members of Dáil Éireann be 158. It recommends that there be 11 five seat constituencies - the same number as at present; 16 four seat constituencies - one more than at present; and 13 three seat constituencies - four fewer than at present. That gives a total of 40 constituencies. The commission recommends that 11 constituencies remain unchanged. These are, as they are listed in the commission report, Longford-Westmeath, Meath East, Carlow-Kilkenny, Wexford, Louth, Meath West, Cork East, Wicklow, Clare, Dublin Mid-West and Cork South-West. The commission reported that it had considered making these constituencies conterminous with the relevant county boundaries. However, to have done so would have either resulted in variances in some of the constituencies concerned, which the commission considered unacceptable, or required changes to adjoining constituencies. The commission states in its report that it was satisfied, in the light of the constitutional requirements and its terms of reference, that the existing arrangement was acceptable from the point of view of equality of representation.

The commission recommended changes to constituencies in the following areas: Cork, Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan, Dublin, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, Kerry and Limerick, Waterford, Tipperary, Laois, Offaly and Kildare. In the Cork area the commission recommended a reduction of one seat to take account of the population as ascertained in census 2011 and in the context of a 158 seat Dáil. It recommended maintaining the existing five constituency formation in Cork but with the transfer of electoral divisions from Cork North Central to Cork North-West and from Cork South Central to Cork North Central. Acceptance of these recommendations in the Bill before us provides for an improvement in the representational ratio in these constituencies relative to the new national average of one Deputy per 29,040 of the population.

In the Dublin area the commission recommended a reduction of three seats in the context of a 158 Member Dáil. One constituency in the area - Dublin Mid-West - remains unchanged. Change is recommended in the configuration of all other constituencies and the names of four constituencies. The commission recommended an arrangement of constituencies outside the city that mirrors, as far as is practicable, the administrative county boundaries. The population, as ascertained in census 2011, allows this to be done and the Bill provides for the adoption of the commission's recommendations for the area.

In Dublin city there will be one less constituency, reflecting both the population as ascertained in census 2011 and a smaller Dáil.

The commission made recommendations for constituencies in Donegal, Sligo-Leitrim and Cavan-Monaghan, having examined a range of options for the area as a whole which are outlined in the report. It identified the particular challenges presented in reviewing constituencies in these counties. They include the fact that Donegal is contiguous with only one other county - Leitrim. Also, having regard to the population as ascertained in census 2011, an arrangement of constituencies based exclusively on county boundaries is not feasible. In the Galway-Mayo-Roscommon area the reconfiguration of constituencies recommended precludes direct comparison with the current seat allocation for the area, as it does also in the rest of Connacht and Ulster, but having regard to the population as ascertained in census 2011, an arrangement of constituencies based exclusively on county boundaries is not feasible. As the commission points out, the population of County Mayo can no longer form a five seat constituency, while County Roscommon does not have a sufficient population to stand alone as a constituency.

Implementation of the recommendations made in the Bill means the Connacht-Ulster area will be divided into seven constituencies instead of eight, as is the case at present. The seven constituencies will be represented by 28 Deputies compared to 31 at present.

In the Kerry-Limerick area the commission recommended a reduction of one seat to take account of the population as ascertained in census 2011 and in the context of a 158 seat Dáil. It recommended that County Kerry should form a five seat constituency; that there be two Limerick constituencies, namely, a four seat Limerick city constituency based on the existing constituency, with the addition of ten electoral divisions from the county, and a three seat Limerick county constituency.

In the Waterford, Tipperary, Laoighis-Offaly and Kildare area the commission recommended no change to the overall allocation of 22 seats. However, significant changes to constituency arrangements are recommended which address, in particular, the representational imbalance in Laoighis-Offaly and County Kildare that I mentioned.

The commission recommended that Waterford be a four seat constituency comprising all of the county and city area, thus ending the breach of the Waterford county boundary. There should be a new five seat Tipperary constituency, comprising 93% of the population of the county. County Offaly, with some population from County Tipperary, will form a three seat constituency. County Laois, with some population from County Kildare, will form another new three seat constituency. There should be a small realignment between the Kildare constituencies which should remain as a four seat North Kildare constituency and a three seat South Kildare constituency.

The commission was also required to report on the constituencies for the election of Members of the European Parliament. It recommended maintaining the existing arrangement of constituencies for the election of Ireland's 12 Members to the European Parliament. I am not, therefore, bringing forward in this Bill amendments to the Third Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 in which the constituencies for European Parliament elections and the number of Members to be elected for each constituency are specified. However, as I have acknowledged recently in replies to parliamentary questions in the Dáil, the situation regarding the number of MEPs to be elected to represent Ireland in the next European Parliament is evolving. That is because there is a need to adjust the distribution of seats in the European Parliament to take account of the accession of Croatia this year. This is done on the initiative of the European Parliament which will vote on 14 March on a recommendation from its constitutional affairs committee on the composition of the European Parliament for the 2014-2019 term. The recommendation includes a reduction, from 12 to 11, in the number of representatives to be elected in Ireland. After the vote in the European Parliament, the matter will go to the European Council for decision by unanimity and with the consent of the European Parliament. In the event that the number of MEPs to be elected to represent Ireland is reduced, it will be necessary to review and revise the constituency arrangements. This issue can be addressed once decisions are made in the European Union. In the meantime, my Department is giving consideration to how such a review might be carried out, having regard to the provisions of the relevant legislation, that is, the Electoral Act 1997 and the European Parliament Elections Act 1997.

I will now outline the provisions contained in the Bill. The Bill generally mirrors previous Bills providing for the revision of Dáil constituencies following a census of population. Section 1 defines "Minister" as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government for the purposes of the Bill. It also provides for the interpretation of the words "motorway", "road" and "street" in the Schedule to the Bill.
Section 2provides that the number of Members of Dáil Éireann will be 158 after the dissolution of the Dáil next following the enactment of the Bill. Section 3provides that after the dissolution of the Dáil next following the enactment of the Bill, the Members of Dáil Éireann will represent the 40 constituencies specified in the Schedule.Section 4provides that the number of Members to be returned to each constituency will be as set out in the third column of the Schedule.
Section 5provides for the repeal of sections 2(2), 3, 4 and 5 and the Scheduleto the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009. These specify the existing Dáil constituencies. The repeal will come into operation on the dissolution of Dáil Éireann next following the enactment of the Bill. This means that the existing constituencies will remain in place for the purposes of by-elections in the meantime.

They will also remain in place during the period for the purposes of referendum Acts. Section 6 contains standard provisions on title, collective citation and construction.

The Bill before the House represents a continuation of the long-established practice of implementing the recommendations of the independent Constituency Commission in full. It provides for the revision of Dáil constituencies having regard to the latest census of population. I commend it to the House.