FF Senator seeks set-up of new electoral group

SEANAD REPORT:A NEW electoral commission should be set up to make recommendations on Dáil constituency boundaries, a Fianna Fáil Senator has said. Speaking in the second stage debate on the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, John Ellis (FF) said the proposed legislation was based on a report by a commission that broke its terms of reference.

These had stated that county boundaries should be adhered to where possible and, if not, natural boundaries should be adhered to.

The commission could have dealt with the problems of Co Leitrim and other areas if it changed from having 166 TDs to 168. This would have allowed the tolerances to be such that county boundaries would not need to be broken.

“I am reliably informed that certain individuals, including the chairman of the commission, wanted to allow the county to remain intact in one constituency.That is the reason the relevant documents are being kept from the public.”

Mr Ellis said there was a need for a constitutional amendment to make county boundaries sacrosanct and to allow the number of deputies to vary according to population. There was still time to review the Dáil constituencies.

The Bill would disenfranchise people across the country, who would be “represented by outsiders”. The Minister should seek a legal opinion on whether or not breaking the terms of reference meant the report was flawed.

Minister for Local Government John Gormley said cherry-picking recommendations would undermine the reason for setting up an independent body. The Government’s view was the commission’s advice should be adhered to.

Mr Gormley said after getting advice from the Attorney General, it was decided that spending limits at local elections would be introduced by a separate Bill. Joe O’Toole (Ind) said he thought the constituencies review group had “bottled it in the sense that they could have increased the number of TDs. The only reason they didn’t do it is because they were afraid of the media.”Debate on the Bill will continue at a later stage.

Ivana Bacik (Ind) said that the House should debate what could be done to ensure Israel was held accountable for the war crimes it committed during the recent onslaught on Gaza. She thought that Senators could support the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s call for an end to the favourable trade position Israel enjoyed within the EU.

David Norris (Ind) said 75 per cent of Israeli agricultural products came into the EU. “We could have, as a union, switched that war off . . . if there had been a threat to those agricultural products.”