Sir, – Harry McGee (“Referendum may be needed to limit number of TDs in Dáil”, Analysis, February 8th) discusses the problem of redrawing constituencies to give equal population per TD on the basis of a provision in the Constitution that was drawn up at a time when the State was an emigration state. We now have a state of immigration with some of our immigrants, like myself and other Irish abroad over the last 50 years, aspiring to citizenship, some aspiring to go home, and some not bothered. The result is a significant disparity between the population of a constituency and the number of citizens and others with a right to vote in Dáil elections. We have a situation where the quota in Dublin Central in 2020 was less than half of that in four constituencies, including my own constituency of Donegal. And even in the Dublin region, the Dún Laoghaire quota was 198 per cent of that of Dublin Central. Our Minister of Finance had fewer first-preference votes and fewer final votes than two unsuccessful candidates in Donegal. We need to update the Constitution to reflect the change in population since 1937 but also to provide a basic requirement of representative democracy: equal representation for all voters. – Yours, etc,
LIAM MULLIGAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.