Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House, as always. We in Sligo have grave reservations about the report of the Constituency Commission and the Bill. While I appreciate that the practice has become the automatic acceptance of the recommendations of the independent Constituency Commission, I recall that a former Taoiseach said Governments should not be bound by independent commissions or committees. The Government should weight up the pros and cons of a particular set of proposals. If it were simply a question of accepting the conclusions of independent reports, there would be little need for Government. It would just be a rubber-stamping exercise. At times, we require the expertise of Government, which has its finger on the pulse, to interpret how best to take proposals forward.

While I wholeheartedly welcome the reunification of Leitrim, the break-up of which, presided over by the previous Government, was wrong, the butchering of Cavan and Donegal and the splitting up of counties generally is fundamentally wrong. While I appreciate that when using a particular set of formulae it is not possible to respect county boundaries absolutely, there is a culture in this country which is reflected by county boundaries. There are people who might be close to a particular service in the next county but who choose to go to their local county town for administrative and service purposes. The challenge for the Houses of the Oireachtas, irrespective of the conclusions of any independent commission, is to come up with a formula that takes that into account, even if it means that from time to time that the normal criteria for Deputies per capita must be exceeded or not met. Counties must be kept together.

Fianna Fáil will table an amendment on Committee Stage to address the apparent contempt of the Constituency Commission for the poor people of Cavan and Donegal in naming the proposed constituency "Sligo-Leitrim". What will Peter McVitie, a former Fine Gael candidate in west Cavan and sitting councillor, think of that one when he goes to the polls? What will Barry O'Neill, a former Fine Gael Dáil candidate and sitting councillor, think on going to the polls when he is told he is in Sligo-Leitrim and should go to Deputy John Perry in Ballymote to be looked after? He will be told his local Deputy lives 60 miles away.