Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and commend him on this legislation. It was considered a great deal by the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, of which I am a member. We teased out many options. We heard from many people. The independence of the Electoral Commission is critically important. I have every confidence it will be independent. The Government has really tackled this. The days historically of gerrymandering constituencies and manoeuvering for political expedience and political favouritism are long over and about time. I am not suggesting that happened in recent times. It was way back. We have to instil and encourage confidence in our electoral system whether we are dealing with electoral matters, administration of electoral systems, the funding of them which is critically important and there has been much discussion about the funding and issues around it. This is important. I hold the view that we should centralise our system but that is not something that came through. It is going to be maintained in each of the local authorities. That was clearly decided as the best option. I commend the Minister. He engaged heavily with it. This is really important legislation. It is the beginning and we can work on it. I also commend him on the candidates which I believe are the best candidates. They have been chosen for skills and experience that they will bring to the job. I wish them well.