Limerick East and West

Limerick will lose one TD, and 14,000 voters in the west of the county are to be transferred into a new constituency dominated by Kerry North.

Both Limerick East and West will disappear in the redrawing ordered by the commission. East, shorn of much of its rural hinterland, will drop a seat and be renamed Limerick City.

Nearly 18,000 people - from Roxborough near the city to Hospital in the eastern end of the county, and Doon and Oola on the Tipperary border - move into the new City constituency.

The cut from a five- to a four-seater damages any hopes that PD Senator Fiona O'Malley has of transferring her base from Dún Laoghaire to her home city.

The decision to shift many western electoral areas - including the old Collins stronghold of Abbeyfeale - is already deeply unpopular.

Niall Collins, nephew of former minister Gerry Collins and son of former TD, Michael, criticised the plan last night. "It is a bad day for Limerick . . . and it flies in the face of one of the commission's main terms of reference."

He said he believed he won 3,000 votes in the transferred districts, while his constituency colleague, John Cregan, put his losses even higher.

"Voters will now have to go to Listowel for a clinic, rather than travel two miles to come into mine," said Mr Cregan.