Written answers

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Constituency Boundaries

Photo of Barry CowenBarry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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2261. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the timeframe for the local electoral constituency boundary review for the 2019 local and European elections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28950/17]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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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.  Unlike the position for Dáil and European Parliament constituencies, there is no constitutional or legislative requirement for the revision of local electoral areas.

The Programme for a Partnership Government sets out a number of requirements in relation to local government reform, involving a report to Government and the Oireachtas by mid-2017 on potential measures to boost local government leadership and accountability, including a commitment to consider reducing the size of local electoral areas.

Depending on the outcome of consideration of the mid-2017 report, any review of local electoral area boundaries would be undertaken in good time before the 2019 local elections.

Reviews of European Parliament constituencies are provided for in section 5 of the Electoral Act 1997 which requires the establishment of a Constituency Commission upon publication by the Central Statistics Office of preliminary census results.  The function of the Constituency Commission is to make a report on the constituencies for the election of members of the Dáil and for the election of members of the European Parliament, having regard to Article 16 of the Constitution and to the provisions of sections 6(2) and 6(3) of the Act respectively.

Section 9 of the Electoral Act 1997 provides that 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 were published on 6 April 2017 and, therefore, the Constituency Commission must present its report to the Chairperson of the Dáil no later than 6 July 2017.

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