David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has created a whole set of problems in doing that. If he really wants a debate on the merger in Waterford, I can have that with him but I want to stick to section 3. I agree with the arguments the speaker from Fianna Fáil made. We are against the reduction in the number of Deputies just for the sake of having a reduction in numbers. Essentially, this is about saving money. We made the point already that a raft of allowances paid to Oireachtas Members could be reduced or abolished which would save money without the need to reduce the number of Members of the Oireachtas.

The Minister was not here for all of the Second Stage contributions last week. Understandably, he is busy. In his absence, I made the point that merely reducing the number of TDs, abolishing the Seanad, merging - as he put it - the local authorities, for example, Waterford, reducing the number of councillors and reducing the number of local authorities is all subtraction. Cutting the numbers is the broad thrust of what the Minister has given us but he has not really dealt with the reforms, in terms of where the real problems are.

One of the big problems is that the Executive has far too much power. A small group of people have far too much power. The Government is to abolish the Seanad with the loss of 60 legislators, have fewer in the Dáil, have less scrutiny, have less oversight, and then reduce the number of local authorities as well. That is the main reason I cannot support this section and the legislation.

The terms of reference of the Constituency Commission lent themselves to some of the strange constituencies with which we have ended up. One Senator put it well last week when he stated that some TDs would be dealing with multiple local authorities, in some cases, four different local authorities, because of the changes being made. It makes no sense whatsoever to pull small fragments of counties into different constituencies, for example, parts of east Carlow into Wicklow, part of south Tipperary into west Waterford, part of east Meath into Louth and parts of west Meath into Meath West. Strange configurations and changes have been made, and then more profound ones of which we know in the Border counties, all because of the terms of reference with which my party does not agree.

My party would have preferred to see a move to have increased seat constituencies, for example, six-seat constituencies. That would achieve greater proportionality and there was an opportunity to do so in some constituencies. It is one of the positives at which the Minister has looked in the case of local government reform. There will be five, six and seven-seat wards, and perhaps even bigger, in local authorities and that will be good for proportionality and ensuring there is diversity in representation. We need that at national level as well. My party will support the Fianna Fáil amendment and opposing the section for the reasons I outlined.