James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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272. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the next electoral Constituency Commission is due to convene, following the recent census; if Dáil or local electoral areas, or both, are due for consideration and, if so, the expected timeline around same; the terms of reference likely to be set; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14520/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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 was 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.

Unlike the position for Dáil and European Parliament constituencies, there is no constitutional or legislative requirement for the revision of local electoral areas. The most recent review of local electoral areas was carried out from November 2012 to May 2013 by a Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee established under the Local Government Act 1991. The recommendations of that committee were implemented through 30 Statutory Instruments made in January 2014. I am not in a position to indicate, at this stage, when a review of local electoral areas might next be undertaken.