Division of council areas favours Greens - FG

THE DIVISION of Dublin's local government electoral areas, which will split the south-city village of Sandymount in two, is designed to win more seats for the Green Party, a local Fine Gael councillor has claimed.

The southeast area of Dublin has three electoral areas for the purposes of local government elections. These are: the southeast inner city, with three seats; Pembroke, with three seats and Rathmines, with four seats.

However, the review of local electoral boundaries commissioned by Minister for the Environment John Gormley last summer has recommended that representation in the southeast inner city be increased to four councillors and Pembroke and Rathmines be amalgamated with the loss of one seat, bringing their representation to six councillors.

The changes, which are due to be signed off by the Minister in the coming weeks, will make it easier for the Green Party to wins seats, according to Fine Gael councillor Paddy McCartan. "Six seats will make it much easier for the Greens. It's a fairly blatant attempt to win a Green seat," he said. Mr Gormley has denied the accusation, saying the boundary commission had been completely independent: "What they are saying is that gerrymandering has occurred.

It's the worst sort of political mischief-making when they know that it is a totally independent process and is independent because there has been political interference the past."

Mr Gormley admitted the change would be more likely to result in the election of a Green candidate.

"The fact that we have a situation where three-seaters no longer exist will favour smaller parties, I can't argue with that, but that doesn't change the fact that it was an independent process," he said.

The commission has redrawn electoral boundaries to ensure there are the proportionate number of constituents to councillors. In Sandymount the change means the boundary line will run through the centre of the village, effectively putting businesses in one electoral area and residents in another.

The Green Party, in its submission to the commission, had opposed the division of Sandymount, Mr Gormley said. "My preference is clearly in line with the Green Party submission," he said, but added that he intended to ratify the decision of the commission without any alteration.

A protest was organised by Fine Gael in Sandymount yesterday with some 60 residents forming a "human chain" to illustrate the division of the village between the two electoral areas. The division would make it harder for decisions to be made about Sandymount, Mr McCartan said.

"There will now be 10 councillors who will have to be involved in any decision about Sandymount, it's going to make it very difficult."