Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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783. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will review constituency boundaries when the census is complete; the terms of reference of a potential boundary commission and when it would report. [6873/16]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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Section 5 of the Electoral Act 1997 provides for the establishment of a Constituency Commission upon the publication by the Central Statistics Office of preliminary census results. Census 2016 is to be taken on 24 April 2016 and the Central Statistics Office expects to publish the preliminary results in July of this year. The function of the Constituency Commission is to make a report on the constituencies for the election of members of the Dáil and the members of the European Parliament having regard to Article 16 of the Constitution and to the terms of reference set out in section 6(2) of the Electoral Act 1997.

In accordance with section 9 of the Electoral Act 1997 the Constituency Commission must present its report to the Chairperson of the Dáil no later than 3 months after the publication of final census results. These results are expected in March or April 2017.