Law on constituency changes introduced

Dáil  Report: Legislation to change constituency boundaries for the next general election was formally introduced in the Dáil yesterday.

The Bill gives effect to the recommendations of the boundary commission and creates five new constituencies but replaces four existing ones. It also changes 23 constituencies and retains 15 existing ones, said Minister for Environment Dick Roche, who introduced the Electoral (Amendment) Bill.

The Bill also allows certain items to be included by candidates as election expenses. These were "inadvertently" deleted from last year's Electoral (Amendment) Act, Mr Roche said.

Expenses now eligible for inclusion include free postage for candidates and the cost of normal media coverage and party political broadcasts. Services that will no longer be calculated as an expense are those provided free by an individual or by a political party employee.

The changes are being made in accordance with requirements that the constituency population each TD represents should not vary from the national average by more than about 7.5 per cent.

In 2002 Kildare North was the most under-represented constituency by 20.73 per cent followed by Dublin West at 16.43 per cent. Dublin North West was the most over-represented constituency by 11.89 per cent while Leitrim was over-represented by 11.01 per cent.

Kildare North will go from a three to a four-seater, while Meath goes from five seats to two constituencies of three seats each. Cork North Central is reduced by one to become a four-seater while two new three-seat constituencies are created in Sligo-North Leitrim and Roscommon-South Leitrim. A new four-seat Longford-Westmeath constituency will also be created.

In Dublin the Mid West constituency becomes a four-seater, while Dublin North Central loses one seat to become a three-seater.

Fine Gael's environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd described as a mess the changes the previous minister had made that required correcting. He said the Bill "really concerns the drift from rural to urban areas, which is becoming clearer with the growth of our cities and towns. This is positive but involves a corresponding neglect or rural areas."

The Louth TD referred to the concerns of Leitrim, which under the proposed changes are unlikely to be represented by a Leitrim-based TD. "They feel their county no longer exists."

Labour's spokesman Eamon Gilmore said that while Labour would accept the Bill, it was odd that the boundary commission was given a different remit for Dublin than for the rest of the State. It was undesirable to breach county boundaries but that restriction did not apply to administrative county boundaries in Dublin. "Now either the counties of Dublin - Fingal, south Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown are counties or they are not." He said the ratio of seat to population also needed to be looked at in a ratio of seat to voters. "It is undesirable that one can be elected to parliament on 6,000 votes in one constituency while it takes 10,000 in another."

Independent TD Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central), whose four-seat constituency will lose a seat, described the legislation as disgraceful, flawed and undemocratic. He believed it should be "thrown out immediately because of its lack of respect for the citizens of the State".