Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

From my experience here there will be no changes. That is what I have seen over the years. There is profound shock in north Roscommon and the Boyle area as 7,800 members of the population will be brought into the constituency of Sligo-Leitrim. The area has 18 electoral divisions that will go from Roscommon to Sligo-Leitrim, including urban and rural Boyle, Ballyfarnan, Keadue, Cootehall, Crossna, Rushfield and Rockingham. This will break up and divide our county. It is against the principle of the commission. It breaks all the rules. The commission has brought the constituency of Mayo back to one county. It states it received submissions. There will not be another review until 2021.

I represented Roscommon in 1981, which is 36 years ago, when County Roscommon was brought back into one constituency, along with an area of east Galway. Efforts have been made in the past by Governments to divide the county with regard to transferring Monksland to County Westmeath. This was thwarted by the will of the people of Roscommon.

I do not think we can change these recommendations, quite frankly. They have all been accepted. On behalf of the people of north Roscommon I am gravely disappointed. It is an area that will be disenfranchised from the rest of the county with regard to developments, progress and representation in Dáil Éireann. It is a blow, let us be quite frank about it. It is the area of County Roscommon that elected Count Plunkett in 1917. It has a proud tradition of electoral support and it created the first Sinn Féin independent Member of Parliament. The people feel very let down, aggrieved and disappointed at what has happened. One Member of the House has already stated he will run in another area, but that is another day's work.