Court dismisses claim over revision of constituencies

The High Court has dismissed claims by two politicians that the Oireachtas breached its constitutional obligations in the way constituencies have been revised.

However, it suggested that the Electoral Act might be amended to address disparities in certain constituencies in the ratio of TDs to population.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke stressed yesterday that his dismissal of the case must be seen against the "urgent" nature of the obligation on the Oireachtas to remedy the "significant, disproportionate and impermissible" variations in some constituencies between the number of TDs to be elected and their populations as found in the last census.

He said the ratio was more than 10 per cent beyond the average in a number of constituencies.

He also strongly indicated that failure by the Oireachtas to act speedily to address its obligation to introduce amending legislation to address such disparities could, in certain situations, lead to court intervention.

In addressing significant disparities, the judge said the obligation to act arose from the time the necessary population information was available from which calculations could be made.

While in this case he found the necessary information was available on March 29th, 2007, and not from a preliminary census report, he suggested action should be initiated from the time of publication of preliminary census figures as it seemed "very unlikely" such preliminary figures differed greatly from final census figures.

In that regard, there should be "urgent consideration" of whether the Electoral Act 1997 should be amended to allow measures to begin from the time of publication of preliminary rather than final census figures.

The fact an election may be called at short notice increased the obligation to act speedily.

He said in this case it was not practicable between the publication of the final figures on March 29th and when the Dáil was dissolved (April 29th) to ensure the process of enacting amending legislation was completed in time for the general election.

Mr Justice Clarke was delivering his reserved judgment on the challenge by Dublin North Central Independent TD Finian McGrath and former Kildare North TD Catherine Murphy to the constitutionality of the Electoral Amendment Act which defines constituency boundaries.

The challenge was brought after an analysis by them of the final census of population figures released this year.

The judge also dismissed a related action by Feargal Molloy, a Dublin West constituent, who sought to have an extra seat added to the constituency.

He listed the TDs' case for mention on June 22nd to allow the sides to consider the judgment.

Gerard Hogan SC, for the politicians, indicated he would be seeking costs.

He said the State "may have won the battle but they have lost the war".

Dealing with Mr Molloy's claim, the judge found the Minister for the Environment had no power to add an extra seat to a constituency.