High Court challenge to election plans

[Maximus]

In a last ditch attempt to save his seat, outspoken independent TD Finian McGrath has lodged papers with the High Court challenging the State's plans for the allocation of Dail seats in 10 Constituencies.

It has been reported, McGrath has the support of another independent TD Catherine Murphy and the pair have taken the action directly against Environment Minister Dick Roche, who has responsibility for constituencies in the election, and the Attorney General, Rory Brady.

The pair who are apparently "disgusted at insufficient Dail representation", claim five constituencies are currently under-represented: Dublin West and North, Meath East and West and Laois-Offaly.

And that five others are over-represented: Cork North Central, Dún Laoghaire, Kerry North and South and Dublin North-East.

They claim, current situation is a "manifest infringement,” and that “the fundamental cornerstone of democracy is one person one vote but where one vote has more sway than another the basis on which a democracy is founded comes into question."

People fought and died for our rights to vote and the Minister and Attorney General are allowing the value of that vote to be eroded. This must be stopped.”

Apparently Murphy and McGrath took a few minutes to analyse last month’s final population records from the Central Statistics Office and now claim that 10 of the 43 constituencies breach article 16 of the constitution that every constituency should have, within reason, the same ratio of TD per population.

Sounds more like "manifest" opportunism, but no doubt they'll get a load of free press before the judge throws the case out.

[FutureTaoiseach]

They claim, current situation is a "manifest infringement,” and that “the fundamental cornerstone of democracy is one person one vote but where one vote has more sway than another the basis on which a democracy is founded comes into question."

People fought and died for our rights to vote and the Minister and Attorney General are allowing the value of that vote to be eroded. This must be stopped.”

Of course, this might give the impression that revisions to the seat-allocations to address their concerns would mean that all votes are equalk in terms of representation. The problem with that analysis is that it fails to recognise that 10% of our population are non-national and that this component of the population growth is largely ineligible to vote - perhaps meaning that leaving the situation as it stands for now is not so unrepresentative of the voters (as opposed to population) at all. Which to my mind - is the way it should be. Persons ineligible to vote should not be taken account of when determining seat-allocations or constituency boundaries. Otherwise, one vote will indeed count for more than others, on the basis that it has a greater proportion of those ineligible to vote - which seems daft to me. Even so there is an arguable case that the Constitution as currently stands, makes such allocations on the basis of population rather than population eligible to vote. As such I would call for a constitutional amendment to link it to the population eligible to vote. Otherwise we are going to have some very strange deviations between % of the 1st-pref votes and % of seats per party - more so than ever before because unlike up to 10-15 yrs ago - our population growth is now being driven mainly by an influx of those ineligible to vote in General Elections.

[meriwether]

In a last ditch attempt to save his seat, outspoken independent TD Finian McGrath

That made me snigger.
Its like Cowley stating his phones were tapped.
Next week: Mae Sexton sets herself alight outside Dail Eireann.

[Sidewinder]

The problem with that analysis is that it fails to recognise that 10% of our population are non-national and that this component of the population growth is largely ineligible to vote - perhaps meaning that leaving the situation as it stands for now is not so unrepresentative of the voters (as opposed to population) at all. Which to my mind - is the way it should be. Persons ineligible to vote should not be taken account of when determining seat-allocations or constituency boundaries.

Except the Constitution makes no such distinction, the Government have been repeatedly warned for over a year that at least 2 and possibly up to 10 constituencies would end up in breach, and Dickroach deliberately sat on his hands and did nothing. And that was a Cabinet-level decision taken after consultations with the Attorny General.

Such wanton disregard for the Constitution and for democracy in the Republic (again!) shows this gang of crooks need to be removed from office immediately.

Between the chaotic state of the electoral register - again, an issue the Government have been warned about repeatedly for the last decade but chose to ignore - and the long-foreseen constituencies in breach of Art. 16 - this election is wide open to being declared unconstitutional until both problems have been fixed.

Or is that the plan, eh?

[KeithM]

Five years in the Dail, and the only memorable thing he's done is "You're A Star". What a waster!

[THR]

I was surprised to read the opening post. I have always thought that in Ireland and in Britain the impartiality of the Boundary Commission has never been questioned even though especially in the Irish case, where there are 3-5 seat constituencies, there could be endless possibilities to gerrymander the constituencies to favour some party over another.

[gaelach]

As such I would call for a constitutional amendment to link it to the population eligible to vote.

Surely not?

What of the areas with large numbers of children?
It should be linked to the number of Irish and British Nationals in the area i.e those Nationalities eligible to vote.

[baldur0300]

Except the Constitution makes no such distinction, the Government have been repeatedly warned for over a year that at least 2 and possibly up to 10 constituencies would end up in breach, and Dickroach deliberately sat on his hands and did nothing. And that was a Cabinet-level decision taken after consultations with the Attorny General.

Such wanton disregard for the Constitution and for democracy in the Republic (again!) shows this gang of crooks need to be removed from office immediately.

Between the chaotic state of the electoral register - again, an issue the Government have been warned about repeatedly for the last decade but chose to ignore - and the long-foreseen constituencies in breach of Art. 16 - this election is wide open to being declared unconstitutional until both problems have been fixed.

Or is that the plan, eh?

But the thing is that the Constitution is quite explicit. The ratio must only be the same so far as is practicable. It was not practicable for the constituencies to be redrawn this close to a general election and so it doesn't need to be done. The census figures are only being released now and it took months the last time the constituencies were redrawn. This action is just the last gasps of McGraths political career.

[Sidewinder]

But the thing is that the Constitution is quite explicit. The ratio must only be the same so far as is practicable. It was not practicable for the constituencies to be redrawn this close to a general election and so it doesn't need to be done. The census figures are only being released now and it took months the last time the constituencies were redrawn. This action is just the last gasps of McGraths political career.

Self-serving incompetent blether.

This issue has been lurking in the undergrowth for a couple of years now. Preliminary figures were available months ago. How fecking hard would it be to study the likely lie of the land and draw up a few contingency plans for the likely scenarios, then run with the best fit when the final census figures are released? One day in the Dáil, bit of legislation, sorted.

Instead we're facing into a constitutional crisis and months of expensive court cases to decide the legitimacy of any election, and being the laughing stock of Europe.

The total uselessness of the Government is mind-boggling. Just how dumb are they? Not one of them seems remotely effective or capable, not one of them seems to have any experience in getting things done, not one of them can think things through, plan for the future, get things organised.

I wouldn't trust a single one of them to go to the shop for a loaf! Utter, utter, brain-dead muppetry.

[The Analyser]

I was surprised to read the opening post. I have always thought that in Ireland and in Britain the impartiality of the Boundary Commission has never been questioned even though especially in the Irish case, where there are 3-5 seat constituencies, there could be endless possibilities to gerrymander the constituencies to favour some party over another.

It is not the impartiality of the outcome but the reliability of the figures the government gave them to work with, that is the issue. Put simply, the figures the Commission had to base its work on, are constitutionally problematical.