Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. He has laid out the objectives of the Bill. There will now be a reduction overall from 12 to 11 seats. As the last speaker said, we welcome the accession of smaller countries and more countries to the European Union but cognisance must be taken of the fact that the seat reduction has taken place and was done by the Commission. The reduction means that Ireland will have one less representative in the European Parliament, which is not in any way ideal, because MEPs must cover a vast area as it stands. There will be one less voice to represent Irish interests but the reduction is pan-European and therefore every member state is losing MEPs according to size and population.

This legislation, as well as the legislation on the minimum number of MEPs a country may have, follows from the Electoral, Local Government and Planning and Development Act of 2013, which allowed for the establishment of a committee to examine European Parliament constituencies and make changes to the current nomination requirements for non-Irish or UK nationals standing in European Parliament elections here. This Bill includes the committee's recommended changes to the constituencies.

At present, the constituencies are rather large and the Bill proposes changes whereby the constituencies would be larger still with the abolition of the Ireland East constituency. I do not intend to go into the detail I have before me because the Minister has outlined it in his contribution and I would only be duplicating what he has said. Instead, I will concentrate on the enlarging of the constituencies. This will mean vast swathes of the country will have to be covered by each MEP, stretching from Malin Head to Laois, a daunting task for anyone.

Naturally, MEPs have a different remit to national parliamentarians and county councillors in that the national interest is paramount. Furthermore, they are charged with meeting constituents and constituency groups in each constituency. If they do not, they will not be elected. Therefore, we cannot ignore that they must get around the constituencies. It is a major job.

I pay tribute to one of our own who is retiring. Mr. Gay Mitchell, MEP, has done us great service and has announced his retirement. He has been in the European Parliament since 2004 and was in the Lower House for 20 years before that. I imagine we will get other opportunities to pay respect to all the retiring politicians from the European Parliament. They have given us such service. Mr. Mitchell is among them but there are others as well. Since I know Mr. Mitchell I mentioned him in particular and the service he has given for the Dublin region and Dublin South-Central.

As it stands, MEPs in the Ireland North-West constituency must take into account people living in Kilrush and Moville. I am unsure whether it is physically possible to cover that territory and engage with constituents. The matter should be opened up, not at the time of an election but after the European elections, to an academic debate in the Seanad. There is no better place to have a debate on the European Parliament composition and the population versus that of other countries and so on. The last speaker referred to small countries and Ireland having the same number of representatives as Malta. Perhaps there should be a debate about single-seat constituencies or a national list system to get away from these vast constituencies. That is an academic debate that we should have but not at election time. We should use the Seanad for a debate afterwards. MEPs tend to be located in physically different areas and in practice the boundaries might be somewhat smaller when it comes to working out the changes.

The Constituency Commission report of 2012 recommended that no change be made to the existing constituencies for the election of 12 MEPs. However, the constituency revision has now been completed and we must operate with one less MEP in advance of the next election in May, bringing down the total number. Let us compare ourselves with other EU countries. In terms of population we could not argue because, per head of population and with the loss of one Member, it is not too bad. Germany has one seat for every 852,539 people and Ireland has a seat for every 416,615 people. We would lose the argument if it was simply on population, especially if Germany or the larger countries came into the fray. However, there is a good deal more to put into the argument than simply the matter of population and the large versus the small.

The legislation passed last year will ensure that the total number of Members of the European Parliament to be elected in the State will be specified. The Minister and the previous speaker have said enough on that and therefore I will not dwell on it.

Under the provisions of Article 29 of the Constitution, as recently amended, the Seanad must give prior approval to EU proposals for enhanced co-operation, the Schengen acquis and the opt-out for Ireland in respect of EU measures on freedom, security and justice, including the ending of that opt-out.

As a result of the legislation passed last year, the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 has been amended to transpose changes made by Directive 2013/1/EU, which changes the nomination procedures for EU nationals who stand for the European Parliament in a country where they are a resident but not a national. This is a welcome change as it means that where a resident of one EU country, who is a national of another EU country, wishes to run as a candidate in a European Parliament election, the relevant information available from the home member state must be provided in an appropriate manner within five working days from receipt of the notification or, where possible, within a shorter time.

The purpose of this is to make the process of running as a candidate in another EU jurisdiction if one is resident in that jurisdiction easier and to give more a more appropriate timeframe for the assessment of the suitability of such a candidate in the adopted country of residence.

The statutory constituency commission carries out periodic reviews of the European Parliament and the Dáil constituencies. The commission carried out a review in 2012 recommending that the constituencies remain unchanged but as a result of the European Parliament's decision in March 2013 to reduce the overall number of MEPs it had to reconvene last year. Its role is advisory and its recommendations are not binding but we should take on board its findings given the scrutiny and the independence of the commission as it comprised a variety of individuals. I compliment the commission on the work it has done. The commission chose to opt for optimal equality in terms of representation with no breach of county boundaries and allocating four seats to each of the two non-Dublin constituencies but this has been changed. The changes made to Schedule 3 of the European Parliament Election Act 1997 will change current MEP constituencies. I wish good luck to all of the candidates and particularly to our own candidates. All of the people who put themselves up for election in any election must be commended and complimented I wish them a safe journey on their long road of travel.