Constituency Commission

[gijoe]

The final date for submissions is on Monday. Current submissions may be found at the link below.

Constituency Commission Homepage

One thing that strikes me is that some submissions from public representatices are bordering on the illiterate and don't contain any coherent argument. I don't know why that surprises me though...

While not in the illiterate category, the Michael Creed one is amusing as it is based on historic parishes and the location of GAA clubs just so he can find some way of creating boundaries that suit him.

I think Leo Varadkar is right in saying that the County Councils of Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoighre should have their own counstituencies within their areas but his suggestion of a 5 seat Dublin West and Swords is just daft!

Michael Healy Rae wants Kerry to keep 6 seats because of the size of the County and basically feck the Constitution.

There was another very self serving submission from I think the FF Senator in North Dublin who wanted more ground from his balliwick in his patch and from John Paul Phelan in Carlow.

[Clanrickard]

1 per constituency with a maximum of 60 constituencies was a FG proposal last year and was included in their 5 Point Plan. A further 60 deputies to be elected on a 'List'.

I would see that as the way forward. There are too many Michael Ring types though in FG who oppose this.

[KingKane]

Bump, the closing date is this Tuesday.

I've sent in my submission today. They say that decisions are made by those who turn up, or those who pay attention at a minimum. If you find your constituency changed and you're unhappy about it, remember now was the time to have said that you liked things just as they are.

[Keith-M]

How can people possibly make proper submissions when the government has yet to pass the bill reducing the number of TDs to the minimum allowed or are they going to "direct" the Commission to come up with boundaries that only yield ~150 TDs?

[locke]

AFAIK The remit to the commission specifies a maximum of 160. There is a constitutional minimum of 153. I expect 156-158 to be the final outcome.

[gijoe]

Bump, the closing date is this Tuesday.

I've sent in my submission today. They say that decisions are made by those who turn up, or those who pay attention at a minimum. If you find your constituency changed and you're unhappy about it, remember now was the time to have said that you liked things just as they are.

Did you make a submission on the division of the whole 153-160 seats or was your submission more Constituency specific? About 90% of them seem to be about Swords and Leitrim. One guy did make a good stab at coming up with a 153 seat Dail and a couple of others with 156 and 160 seats, those were the only submissions of interest, the rest were either very self serving or repetitive (i.e Swords).

[gijoe]

How can people possibly make proper submissions when the government has yet to pass the bill reducing the number of TDs to the minimum allowed or are they going to "direct" the Commission to come up with boundaries that only yield ~150 TDs?

The commission has to come up with a division of 153-160 seats that will fly Constitutionally. When their report is published the Dail will vote to adopt it, or not.

[Panopticon]

How can people possibly make proper submissions when the government has yet to pass the bill reducing the number of TDs to the minimum allowed or are they going to "direct" the Commission to come up with boundaries that only yield ~150 TDs?

They have already directed the Commission to do so.

Electoral (Amendment) Act 2011, Section 3

[Keith-M]

The commission has to come up with a division of 153-160 seats that will fly Constitutionally. When their report is published the Dail will vote to adopt it, or not.

They have already directed the Commission to do so.

Electoral (Amendment) Act 2011, Section 3

Thanks, I missed that. Even with 160 it will mean some major changes, with 153, no constituency would remain untouched.

The things I'd like to see are the merging of both Kerry and both Donegal constituencies and cutting the numbers in both to 5 seats and bring back the integrity of the Limerick county boundaries. The Dublin constituencies should also be aligned better with the county boundaries.

[lebowskilite]

As you lower the number of seats further, continuity goes out of window. Looking at the figures for the North-West, for instance. Our allegiance to Britain's 19th century system of local government means that anyone trying to come up with a reasonable submission for that area for 153 TDs will be doing a lot of angry keyboard mashing before they get through it.