New Commission to review constituencies

[jayblue]

A Commission is being set up to review Dáil and European constituencies here, it emerged today.

It follows the publication of research by the Central Statistics Office, which shows a wide variation in the make up of constituencies, with the ratio of TDs to population ranging from 22,500 in Dun Laoighaire to more than 30,000 in Dublin West.

Mr. Justice Iarlaith O'Neill is to chair the new commission.

This was not expected until the new Dail seats. Wonder how it will affect the pending court case of the independents

[THR]

I have a question about how the constituencies are formed in Ireland. You have a system whereby the country is divided into an unspecified number of constituencies which each return 3-5 members. Some counties may be divided into more than one constituency while some other counties may together form one constituency. However, no part of a county and a part of another county may form one constituency. Am I right this far?

What puzzles me is as how is it decided in case that a county which is divided into more than one constituency the number of seats in each of them? I mean, does the commission always go by case-by-case method and decide the division as what is "sensible". If a population-census shows that a county x returns 9 TD`s, is there a rule as whether the county is divided into three constituencies of three or two constituencies returning five and six respectively?

Propbaly in such a case it matters if there is one large city in that county, so the city forms one constituency and the rest of the county another. However, if it is a rural county with no large towns, there just has to be some sort of sensible division.

[jayblue]

There are a few articles in the constitution regarding this, but a quick summary is
minimum number of seats is 164 maxium is 168
minimum number of people per TD is 20,000 and the maximum is 30,000. The funny thing is that if you divided the 30,000 max into the latest census results we would need only 147 TDs, a reduction of 19. Can we really see our TD's and parties calling for this.

[ciaranmac]

Historically the number of people per TD has until recently been close to the 20,000 minimum. This was probably because of emigration and a declining population between 1930-1960 when the number of TDs was 148 (iirc). In the seventies when the population began to increase, the number of TDs was increased to 166 thus keeping close to the minimum population per TD (more jobs for the lads). In the mid 80s the PDs proposed reducing the number of TDs to 110 with a minimum pop per TD of 25000 and a max of 30000. Since then the population has gone up by 50% and the PDs effectively got their wish as the number of TDs stayed the same.

The constitution sets a minimum of 3 seats per constituency and no maximum is specified. The statutory maximum of 5 is part of the terms of reference for the commissions which redraw the boundaries, as is the guideline that they should keep to county boundaries as far as practicable. The 164-168 range is also part of these terms - constitutionally, this one will have to change if the population continues to grow.

[FutureTaoiseach]

A better system would link the share of the seats per constituency to the proportion of the population of Irish citizens/voters living in the constituency. Otherwise the allocation of seats per party will be more out of line with the share of the votes per party.

[gaelach]

There are a few articles in the constitution regarding this, but a quick summary is
minimum number of seats is 164 maxium is 168
minimum number of people per TD is 20,000 and the maximum is 30,000. The funny thing is that if you divided the 30,000 max into the latest census results we would need only 147 TDs, a reduction of 19. Can we really see our TD's and parties calling for this.

That bits in the 1997(I think) Electoral act...not Bunreacht na hÉireann.

[Sidewinder]

Are the three-seaters still justifiable, given the way they actively work against proportionality in a multi-party system? The days of 2.5 parties are long gone and unlikely to ever return. We've got 2 large and 4 small parties now. Fewer 4 to 6-seater constituencies would be better than a load of piddling 3-seaters.