constituency changes 2012

[dunlaoighaire]

It's a possibility though.

[factual]

Donegal will become a 5seater making SF a cert there.

[locke]

That would leave Donegal with over 29,000 people per TD. That's too high.

There's one proviso on everything I said so far in this thread, which is that it's based on there being 166 TDs. If that went up or down everything changes.

[THR]

Are there any rules as to how the constituencies are formed? For example, if a county returns 9 TDs is it divided as 3-3-3 or 5-4? Has the Boundary Commission the final word on that?

Probably, as almost each Irsish county consists of one larger town and the surrounding countryside, the constituency-division is made so that the town forms one constituency and the countryside another. I mean, in the case the county in question is divided into more than one constituency.

[dunlaoighaire]

Donegal will become a 5seater making SF a cert there.

dream on. Fg and FF would lose a seat.

[ivnryn]

I'd like to think the boundary commission is independent of where the seats go, but I would imagine that they are in some way sensitive.

We should have create 30 fixed constituencies with min 100k in each. The 166 seats could then be split between them using Webster's method. This would eliminate any political interference. The only problem would be a rule for handling a situation where one of them drops in population to <75k (and so could end up with fewer than 3 seats).

It would also create alot more 5 seaters .

Something like (if I could amend the constitution single handed ):

1° Dáil Éireann shall be composed of members who represent constituencies determined by law.

2° The number of members shall be set to the cubed root of the population, rounded to the nearest even whole number, as ascertained at the census preceeding the election.

3° The number of members to be elected for each constituency shall be determined using Webster's method based on the population of each constituency as ascertained at the census preceeding the election.

4° The Oireachtas shall revise the constituencies after a census indicates that at least one constituency will return fewer than three members at the subsequent election or where the average number of members to be returned from each constituency exceeds six. The revisions to the constituencies shall be, as far as is practical, minimal such that all constituencies will return at least four members and the number of constituencies is equal to the number of members to be returned divided by five rounded down to the nearest whole number.

5° A census shall be held before the end of the second year of the life of each Dáil Éireann or within seven years of the previous census, whichever occurs first.

6° The members shall be elected on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

It probably requires rules for the time between holding the census and the results being available and also the time delay before the revisions must be ready.

[croppyboy]

It hasn't been decided but my calculations are that DL should definitely lose a seat and it's not in the interest of my party for that to be the case of course. Dublin West will have to get a 4th seat. Media speculation indicates Kerry will become a single 5-seater. Beyond that, I don't see much justification for further changes.

FT what's happened to your avatar?!! Have you given up the ghost and come into the fold of FF? Knew you'd see sense in the end, seemed like an intelligent fellow..

[pjb07]

any chance of dublin north becoming a 5seater?

[naive]

I understand that there could be a change in Galway with some of Gal west moving to Gal East, that would be the east side of Gal West, ie. Oranmore, Clarinbridge, Claregalway etc. moving in to Gal east. That would make things very interesting in both east and west Galway!.