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

I respect the people who have been involved in these constituency revisions over the years, which are laid down in law. We have moved away from some of the problems we had in the 1960s and 1970s on all sides of the House, concerning boundaries being predicated in advance. There was no such thing as an independent Electoral Commission then and they were drawn up by the Department and Ministers of all parties. It is great that the former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, was in a position to bring forward the independent review of constituencies which has occurred since 1980. It was an innovative solution to a major problem in which the political classes have a strong vested interest.