LE Boundary Committees Established

[Maximus]

John Gormley has announced he has established two committees to review local electoral areas. The Minister said that the committees will report to him by 20 June next.

A review of electoral areas is needed due to population changes since the last review in 1998. The Committees* reports will be considered as the basis for a revision of the local electoral areas for use at the local elections to be held in 2009.

The terms of reference of both Committees are attached and the Minister
has appointed the following persons to the Committees:

Dublin and Cities Committee
Niall Callan, former Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Chairperson)
Kevin Dowling, Former Executive Manager, Dublin City Council
Adrian Kavanagh, Department of Geography, NUI Maynooth
Willie Soffe, Former Fingal County Manager
Teresa White, Assistant County Manager, Cork

This Committee will report on the areas of Dublin City, Cork City,Galway City, Limerick City, Waterford City, and Dun-Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin County Councils.

Committee for Rest of the Country (*Electoral Area Boundary Committee*)
Niall Callan, former Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Chairperson)
Ann McGuinness, Former Westmeath County Manager
Deirdre Garvey, Chief Executive Officer, The Wheel
Donal O'Donoghue, Former Galway County Manager
John McCormack, Director of Services Kilkenny County Council

This Committee will report on the electoral areas in counties outside of Dublin, and on the borough councils of Drogheda and Sligo and the town councils of Bray and Dundalk all of which are currently divided into local electoral areas.


TERMS OF REFERENCE
Dublin and Cities Electoral Area Boundary Committee

1. To review and to make recommendations, subject to paragraph 2, on the division of the cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and
Waterford and the counties of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin into local electoral areas and the number of members of the councils to be assigned to each such area, with a view to ensuring a
reasonable relationship between the 2006 population and representation
within each local authority. For this purpose, the Committee is to
assume no change in the total membership of each local authority and to
endeavour, as far as practicable, to achieve variance from individual
average local authority representation within the range of + or - 10%.

2. In carrying out its review, the Committee shall have as an objective the drawing up of electoral areas which (alone or in combination) would, as far as practicable, have an urban or neighbourhood focal point (or points).

3. In recommending changes to local electoral areas, the Committee should, subject to paragraph 2, take due account first of the desirability of preserving natural communities or the hinterlands of population centres, and secondly of the desirability, where it may be possible to do so, of aligning local electoral area boundaries with Dáil constituency boundaries.

4. The number of councillors representing an area as determined above should not be less than 4 or more than 7, provided that in very exceptional circumstances 3 seat local electoral areas may be recommended where otherwise the geographic size of the area would be
disproportionately large.

5. Subject to the above, the Committee shall endeavour to maintain continuity in relation to the arrangement of local electoral areas.

6. The Committee shall submit its report as soon as possible and, in any event, not later than 20 June 2008.

TERMS OF REFERENCE
Electoral Area Boundary Committee (local authorities other than in Dublin and the cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford)

1. To review and to make recommendations, subject to paragraph 2,
on the division of each county (other than Fingal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin), the boroughs of Drogheda and Sligo, and the towns of Bray and Dundalk into local electoral areas and the number of members of the councils to be assigned to each such area, with a view to ensuring a reasonable relationship between the 2006 population and representation within each local authority. For this purpose, the Committee is to assume no change in the total membership of each local authority and to endeavour, as far as practicable, to achieve variance from individual average local authority representation within the range of + or - 10%.

2. In carrying out its review, the Committee shall have as an objective the drawing up of electoral areas which (alone or in combination) would, as far as practicable, have an urban or neighbourhood focal point (or points).

3. In recommending changes to local electoral areas, the Committee should, subject to paragraph 2, take due account first of the desirability of preserving natural communities or the hinterlands of population centres, and secondly of the desirability, where it may be possible to do so, of aligning local electoral area boundaries with Dáil constituency boundaries.

4. The number of councillors representing an area as determined above should not be less than 4 or more than 7, provided that in very exceptional circumstances 3 seat local electoral areas may be recommended where otherwise the geographic size of the area would be disproportionately large.

5. Subject to the above, the Committee shall endeavour to maintain continuity in relation to the arrangement of local electoral areas.

6. The Committee shall submit its report as soon as possible and, in any event, not later than 20 June 2008.

[Big Bruffer]

Who or what is 'The Wheel'.
I see our own AP Kavanagh gets a well deserved recognition.

[rockofcashel]

Who or what is 'The Wheel'.
I see our own AP Kavanagh gets a well deserved recognition.

This is the Wheel

http://www.wheel.ie/

Support, advocacy and leadership for community and voluntary activity and the non-profit sector

[Compound Fracture]

Who are the FF/Green Party stooges on the respective committees?

[krayZpaving]

I thought this was being established last October! Why the delay?

[cllr]

the most interesting thing here is the guide that all wards have a minimum of 4 seats as opposed to the present 3. Clearly an attempt to increase the possibility of Government representation.

[rockofcashel]

the most interesting thing here is the guide that all wards have a minimum of 4 seats as opposed to the present 3. Clearly an attempt to increase the possibility of Government representation.

why, how many have 3 at the moment ?

And surely its hardly a complaint ? The larger the number of representatives, the higher the degree of proportionality of representation

I see you're in a 3 seat ward Dermot.. means Pembroke will probably be tagged onto some other area of the SIC to bring up numbers to make it a 4 seater....

Wonder if thats your problem ?

[ivnryn]

the most interesting thing here is the guide that all wards have a minimum of 4 seats as opposed to the present 3. Clearly an attempt to increase the possibility of Government representation.

... or maybe just an attempt to improve overall representation. However, cynically, you are probably right.

We should increase the min for Dail seats to 4 too, even if only legislatively.

[alanmcg]

The move away from 3 seaters is positive especially for the smaller parties.

There is still the huge inconsistincies bewteeen representation in the large urban and less populated rural areas. Leitrim will have almost the same number of councillors as say South Dublin or Fingal despite massively different populations. The fact that urban populations are growing fastly is not reflected in any changes that will be made. We then have extra corporations and councils in many towns while large suburban areas like Lucan, Blanchardstown, Clondalkin and Swords don't. It doesn't seem consistent to me.

And then the anti Dublin bias is rolled out when the Seanad Elections come around and due to the favouring of rural areas in terms of number of councillors, Senators are more likely to come from outside Dublin. Although maybe we will have Seanad reform by the next election.

[rockofcashel]

How would a 5 seat Pembroke/SEIC ward pan out Dermot ?