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IRELAND IS SET to get two new TDs following the next general election, and a number of areas will be gaining extra elected representatives.
The Constituency Commission Report 2017 has recommended that the number of TDs rises from 158 to 160 in the next Dáil term.
It has also proposed a number of changes to constituencies across the country, cutting the total number in the country to 39 (from 40).
The 39 constituencies will be split into 13 five-seaters, 17 four-seaters and nine three-seaters.
The number of three-seat constituencies will drop under the recommendations, while the number of five and four-seaters will rise.
The main changes will be:
A number of boundary adjustments are recommended in other constituencies, but the number of seats in each are to stay the same.
In relation to constituencies for European elections, the Commission did not recommended any changes to the existing boundaries.
The Commission was set up on 14 July 2016 and its report was released this evening by the Department of Housing. It was set up following the 2016 Census of Population.
You can view the full report here.
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Laois Offaly were just separated and given an extra TD in the last election. So it’s an immediate reversal. Well there is politics and government in a nutshell eh!
@Bilbo Baggins:
Independent commission that reports after every election but don’t let that get in the way of a dig at the government anyway.
@P.J. Nolan: So it’s the independent commission that’s inept then? Ah right that’s cool.
@Bilbo Baggins: pop…pop…population is the key otherwise we have an over representation of Cows and Sheep
@Boganity: population has gone up in those two counties, not clear to me how putting Portarlington and it’s environs (a town that borders Offaly & Laois) into the Kildare constituency serves its people better?
@P.J. Nolan: this commission normally gives FF&FG what they want. They have gerrymandered a slice of corks southside into cork north central. It makes no sense but it keeps two of the four ff and FG.
@prop joe:
There have been numerous times down through the years that FF/FG TDs have lost out in boundary changes but because you believe it’s helped them in one area in Cork it’s must all be a fix.
@P.J. Nolan: anyone really believe this commission is independent.?
@P.J. Nolan: if you could give some examples because “independent “has a different meaning in this country.
@prop joe:
The ex mayo manager, O’ Mahony lost out when some of Mayo went into Galway west.
Back in 1995 FG lost out when some of Carlow went into Wicklow.
Both of those happened when FG was in government although the Carlow one is been reversed now, probably to FG’s benefit.
@P.J. Nolan: is there really a difference in voting in rural Galway or rural Mayo and rural Carlow or rural Wicklow. FG&FF will get the same amount of votes. But moving one of the posh parts of the South side into a more working class constituency is nothing more than gerrymandering. If you look at the last election Dara Murphy of FG nosed out Gould of Sinn Fein. That part of the constituency tipped the balance in Murphy’s favour. Any other part of the South side taken in would have produced a different result.
I understand Bunreacht na hEireann sets the figure of one TD per 20,000 – 30,000 of population but a country of our size does not need 160 TDs. We only decreased from 166 to 158 for the 2016 General Election. New Zealand has an equivalent population and its lower house legislature has 119 MPs. I wouldn’t think at that figure New Zealand had a democratic deficit and in Ireland I think we are over-represented in our Parliament. More TDs means more salaries, allowances and expenses paid out of the public purse. Perhaps we need to revisit our Constitution on this matter. I’ve 5 TDs in my constituency and I do wonder where their roles start, trip over one another and stop in representing the area and its people.
@John Fox: crazy, should be less than 100.
@John Fox: Yeah, and if we had a referendum to reduce the number, the usual No voices would ve out. Aunty Peggy would vote No because Leo won’t give her a cardiac unit at the bottom of the village. Uncle Johnny would vote No because he reckons it’s all a Fine Gael conspiracy. Senate Referendum anyone?
@Frank’s Cat: Exactly. We had a chance to reduce the number of politicians in the Senate referendum and we said no. Kenny reduced the number to the lowest allowable without a referendum.
The turkeys actually tried to vote for Christmas, and we said no, but still blame them.
@John Fox: if India had the same proportional representation as Ireland, they would have 43,000 MP’s. In fact, they have 790.
If we used India’s proportional representation, the entire country would be a 3 seater constituency.
3 seats in the dail.
Works for me.
@Perry2016: what if one of those seats was filled by a healy rae.
For normal people – this means nothing . It’s not news. True story
@Ronan McDermott: I’d imagine some people in offaly might disagree
I’d imagine you’re right. Because they’re losing a td & therefor think their lives will get harder. But when would the vast majority of those unhappy people have ever successfully used their local td to resolve something ? I’d guess rarely if ever.
@Ronan McDermott: Well for those of us in North Tipperary moving out of Offaly and back into Tipp means something. Having your local and national representatives in different provinces does make things a bit awkward
I guess it depends olwyn. My thoughts are that they do nothing . But I didn’t mean to pour cold water on people like you who is obviously peeved at this . I assume a td helped you with something in the past . Best of luck with the move .
What’s the international dialling code for Kenya again?
@John Fox: +254
Of all the places in Dublin, Central does not need an extra seat. If anything N Dublin/E Meath should of gotten one.
@Paul: I see part of Meath East is going to Cavan-Monaghan to make it a 5-seater again.
@Paul: Dublin central is very highly populated. Meath less so
Always wondered why we could just do it county by county and assign a proportional amount of TDs to each.
@M: might work for some counties, but not the likes of Cork, too spread out, and rural parts and the city are very different.
@M:
Fair point but as I understand it three is the smallest constituency allowed and a lot of counties wouldn’t have the population for that, Carlow only has one TD, Leitrim barely has the population for even one TD
That said the map has become overly complicated in the last decade or so.
@Ariana: cork would have a large amount of TDs though, some would be voted in my different parts and would work for those areas to continue getting their votes.
If Laois-Offaly are merging again does that mean that the massive portion of North Tipp (north & west of Nenagh) that was amalgamated into Offaly for the last election has reverted to Tipp?
If so the next election will be an interesting battle between Alan Kelly (Lab) & Seamie Morris (SF) as both lost a lot of potential votes due to that ridiculous decision to incorporate North Tipp into Offaly
@wiklagirl: Check out @electionie on Twitter. They’ve just posted all the new constituency changes with maps. That portion of North Tipp transfers back to the 5-seater County Tipperary constituency but part of West Tipp around Newport is transferring to the Limerick City constituency.
@wiklagirl: what’s the story with Morris? Is he gone from SF?
@wiklagirl: I was told that Seamie Morris was kicked out of SF recently. I can’t get anyone from SF to verify it though.
@John Fox: Thanks for that John. Personally I don’t think that the transfer of a portion of a county to another constituency is of much benefit to the smaller portion. Similar to Wicklow/East Carlow ..
@Jane: It’ll be interesting as his family is synonymous with SF but I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes Independent.
http://www.tipperarystar.ie/news/local-news/255969/defiant-cllr-morris-says-he-will-not-allow-name-be-blackened.html
So one of the fastest growing counties in Ireland losses a TD. And I will be surprised if our current TDs stand against it.
@Roghan Headen:
Do TDs have any say in the matter?
@Roghan Headen: Give poor old Dublin another TD. Sure it only has 45 TD’s as it stands.
@John Staunton: to be fair Dublin also has half the population
Straight up Gerrymandering from FG
So it has went from 166 to 158 and now they are saying we need it back up to 160. Then it only takes 12 mep’s to represent us in Europe so why hell do we need 148 more fools, oh sorry we the people are the fools to let this gravy train go on.
@Paul Maguire: I think it has more to do with constitutional requirements….
Its a joke that Mayo only has 4, it used to have six (two three seaters)
@John Twamley: is that also the woman who called for national service to combat the right to entitlement,, then a year or two later, said she was “entitled” to a ticket for an all ireland final because she was a senator,,, the arrogance is tangible….
@gordon larney: what?
@John P. Lally:
And I bet it used to have a bigger population too….( relative to the rest of the country)
@John P. Lally: michelle mulherrin
@John P. Lally: I was responding to a comment from john twamley,, it must have been deleted by the journal,, he gave a few home truths about a mayo senator,, who is an ex TD,, the journal doesn’t like when people speak the truth…
Dublin 45, rest of Leinster 43. Leinster has a 16 seat majority over the rest of the country. Maybe there should be a Leinster Party!! Connacht only 18 seats. Maybe the rest of the country should secede and leave Leinster. Or each Province should have representation based on area rather than population. 45 seats in Dublin is quite ridiculous.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: could you do some analysis and come back to us then. Your points can’t be agree with or disagreed with unless you stack the number of TDs against the population in each area.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: not really when it’s done by population. Would love to see the population ratio equal for every constituency.
@prop joe:
Check out the report itself, it gives quite a lot of detail into the figures behind it.
There is a link in the article.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: actually in comparison to say Leitrim, Dublin gets less representation in relation to population than they do. But it’s national politics. Not local. More power needed back locally so that the national politicians can legislate
@Keith Gregg: part of the problem is that a huge county area wise cannot get enough resources to maintain its roads etc. Dublin for example is a small county area wise but with enormous resources and political clout.
+254
Three seaters are too small. They should all be five seaters and have less of them. The seaters give less of a proportional representation. It’s stupid. Then geography comes into the national equation.
Here we go again Lanigans Ball – in,out,in, out shake it all about. What a stupid bunch of idiots we have in the Commission that we haven’t had proper West Cavan representation in years and years.
@Chris Kirk: Is West Cavan a real place?
@Seamus Og: It’s like Craggy Island, a bit of a joke really as far as politicians are concerned…
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