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WHILE SOME existing TDs (and voters) will be happy with the results of today’s constituency boundary review, not all are pleased.
As the Electoral Commission chief executive Art O’Leary said himself, today’s redrawing of constituencies will result in “winners and losers”.
In its decision to recommend 14 additional TDs and four additional constituencies, the Electoral Commission seemed to favour consistency over ‘future-proofing’ in its decision-making process.
But despite its efforts to maintain consistency among existing constituencies, many voters will see themselves uprooted from their existing voting area in the next election and a number of TDs will see their voter-base moved.
So who are the winners and losers from today’s review?
People living in areas that are tacked on to other counties
Some people will be disappointed to see that their area remains or has been freshly tacked on to a neighbouring county.
Mornington in County Meath is one example of this, with some voters there expressing frustration that they remain in the Louth constituency rather than being moved to Meath East.
In explaining its decision, the Commission said that this current breach of the Meath county boundary was its main consideration.
It said it received a large number of submissions relating to the Louth constituency (10% of all submissions) and that many were from a coordinated campaign promoting city status for Drogheda.
However, it also stated that it received many submissions for all of the Meath electoral districts to be located in Meath constituencies.
Its decision to move one of the two Meath districts currently in Louth back into Meath may satisfy neither camp.
Another example is votes in south Donegal, including the towns of Ballintra, Ballyshannon, and Bundoran who remain in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency.
There had been some speculation that the five seat constituency of Donegal might be split into two three-seaters, reclaiming south Donegal. This however, did not materialise and Donegal has remained as an unchanged five seat constituency.
Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Ms Justice Marie Baker said today: “If a six-seater would have been possible perhaps Donegal could have been a six-seater.”
Wicklow’s Existing TDs
Today’s redrawing means Wicklow and Wexford has now been split into three constituencies – Wicklow, Wexford, and Wicklow/Wexford.
As a result, Wicklow will be a hotly-contested constituency in the next general election with five sitting TDs being forced into a dogfight for four seats.
The maths is clear that as it stands, if all sitting TDs decide to fight for their seats in the next general election, all five will be fighting it out for four seats.
Wicklow’s current TD’s are all based in the north of the county.
These are: Sitting Ministers Stephen Donnelly and Simon Harris, who both hail from Greystones; Sinn Fein’s John Brady and the Green Party’s Stephen Mattews, who are both from Bray and Social Democrat’s Jennifer Whitmore, who lives in Delgany.
As Whitmore is originally from Wexford, there has been questions about whether she would consider throwing her hat into the race in the new constituency, which might be welcomed by the other existing TDs in Wicklow.
However, sources indicate that she is happy to stay put where she is.
Existing TDs in Cork South West
This constituency has remained unchanged as a three-seater.
A hotly contested area, the constituencies three existing TDs; Independent Michael Collins, Social Democrats Holly Cairns, and Fianna Fáil’s Christopher O’Sullivan would have been hoping for the constituency to gain a seat.
For electoral candidates it is more difficult to compete in smaller constituencies as the quota is lower at 25% in three-seaters.
This compares to 16.6% of the votes in a five-seater, which can favour smaller parties sneaking into the final seats.
In a statement released today, Michael Collins expressed his disappointment over the decision to keep Cork South West as a three-seater constituency.
It read: “The announcement comes as a letdown for both Collins and the constituents who had hoped for an expansion to a four-seater constituency, encompassing vital areas like Enniskeane, Newcestown, Castletownkennigh, and the northern part of Dunmanway. These regions, which naturally align with Cork South West, were expected to be brought under its representation.”
The seat numbers remain unchanged at four in Dublin Bay South which means more pressure for existing TDs including Labour leader Ivana Bacik and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.
Although it retained its existing number of TDs, the constituency has however seen the electoral area of Kimmage C transferred into neighbouring Dublin South-Central.
The impact of this remains to be seen and won’t be fully visible until the next election however given that the region gave the greatest amount of first preference votes to Sinn Féin followed by the Green party in the 2020 general election, it could signal an issue for Ryan.
Kerry and the Healy Raes
Ahead of today’s review, there was speculation that Kerry would be split into two three seater constituencies which would have presented a challenge for the existing Kerry TDs.
However, the Commission recommended that the Kerry constituency should remain unchanged as a five seat constituency which encompasses the entire county of Kerry with no breaches of the county boundary.
The commission noted that submissions made in relation to what should be done with the constituency were “relatively evenly divided” between keeping it a five seater or splitting it into two three-seaters.
Kerry TD Michael Healy Rae said today that he welcomed the commission’s decision to maintain the existing constituency.
He said: “I cherish and appreciate the role of being an Independent TD for all of Co.Kerry in Dáil Éireann and look forward to the challenge of going before the electorate.”
Regina Doherty
Fine Gael Senator Regina Doherty, who lost her Dáil seat in the Meath East constituency in 2020 has said she is “delighted” with the Commission’s report today and the creation of the new Fingal West constituency.
Doherty has said she will run there in the next election.
Voters in Swords (Fingal East)
Swords currently forms part of Dublin Fingal, the constituency which has seen the largest population growth nationally in the last census.
Voters there should be pleased to know that the town won’t be split as part of today’s shake-up.
The Commission noted that it was a strong view in the submissions it received that the local authority boundaries should be adhered to in the constituency and in particular that Swords should not be split.
The Commission adhered to these two suggestions and today has recommended splitting Final, currently a five seat constituency (the maximum number of seats permitted), into two three-seat constituencies: Dublin Fingal West and Dublin Fingal East.
Both constituencies will be contained within the boundary of Fingal County Council.
As part of the new configuration, Swords in its entirety will form part of Dublin Fingal East, alongside Donabate, Kinsealy, Malahide and Portmarnock.
Voters in Laois and Offaly
Laois and Offaly were two of the new constituencies created today, with three seats being assigned to each one.
It is the first time that the Offaly constituency fully aligns with its county borders.
Currently, a five seat constituency exists for the counties of Laois and Offaly with the exclusion of four electoral districts in Laois and one from Offaly from the area around Portarlington that are in the Kildare South constituency.
The Commission has said that the submissions it received were mostly in favour of splitting the Laois-Offaly constituency into two three-seat constituencies, primarily based on their county boundaries.
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Winners Politicians, Losers the Voting Public
@Trent: How.
@Daniel Roche: Moving the goalposts
@Daniel Roche: we need less politicians. Not more. Would love to know how much this will cost us.
@Daniel Roche: Cause they don’t do anything. Or maybe that’s us…
@Andrew English: 14 extra TDs is costing €2.3m+ it was listed in article yesterday. 2.3m that could be going elsewhere like housing, HSE and school upgrades absolute joke!!
The first two I’d sack is them two in the photo
@: The public voted for them, not you. If there’s another seat in their constituency, 3 Healy Rae’s will appear in future pictures.
@Alan Cooke: god help them having another one as well
@Alan Cooke: Probably be a REAL leprechaun this time round
Do you not like democracy.
@: @: Don’t you dare say that about flatcap. Him and a few other indos is about it, in my book anyway. Heard there’s a new FFGSF hot candidate by lou cipher. Embarrassing
@Peter Ryan:
Could you try that in English?
@Alan Cooke: it won’t be the nephew/son county councillor who beat up an English tourist with his mates one night anyway. They like to keep that quite though…
@Ronan Mc: they should have got a lot of years in jail for that attack and the two lads in photo that got them off, disgraceful
@: Areooo from Kerry?
@P.J. Nolan: How do you delete comments? I’m already tired of typing something about the our masonic politicians. Add another few hundred grand to them in the next swell election day. Or a few million
@Jimmy Wallace: rural Ireland is an attack on civilization
@: well, neither of them would have much trouble keeping their seats even if the Kingdom was split in two . It’s for the public of that region to decide , not you
@Ronan Mc: not sure why , sure he was English , sure , that won’t do him any harm. Surely the Shinners would have respect for that ?
@Trent: tvvat
@:
the people who think michael healy rae is harmless .. can i remind them he helped martin mcguinness run for president . That’s the same MHR who said his heart went out to Brian Stack’s family .
Israel 120 members for 9 mill population = 1/75,000 pop
Nederlands 150 members for 17 mill population = 1/113,000 pop
Its like the the joke, which goes as follows;-
If it take one man-hour hour to dig a hole, how long does it take two men to dig the same hole.?
Answer. 2 man-hours – because there is only room for one man in the hole.
@Antony Stack: And what has that got to do with Ireland,a man dies in India,let’s include Ireland.
@Antony Stack: And look at how successful their political system is.
14 winners. 5.033 million losers.
@Louis Jacob: So you hate the Irish constitution.
@Daniel Roche: yes it’s a mess
@Daniel Roche: It needs to be changed. It should be 1 TD per 80,000 to 100,000.
@: lol. Go on ,tell us how , assuming that you actually understand the text in full, and more importantly , how the courts interpret it with decades worth of case law . A Constitution that is also regularly reviewed and amended by the public vote (risky considering how most people are clueless ) . Looking forward to hearing your armchair legal and political expertise regarding how it’s a mess . It wasn’t long ago (about 15 years ) when a member of the public went to the Superior courts complaining that their area didn’t have sufficient representation for the forthcoming Dail as per the constitution.
@Louis Jacob: 5 million don’t have a vote ! Those with no vote don’t count
@:
reminds me of the late Robin Williams he was in MAN OF THE YEAR a black film about politics
He is on a tv debate and he gets out of hand ,
himself and the moderator have the following exchange ..
TM : Don’t make a mockery of our democratic process!!!!
RW : It’s been a mockery long before i got here ..
(Audience applaud)
@Foe Cough:
comedy *
a black comedy
The only winner will be the Dáil bar :)
@Anonymous User: that’s for the riff raff. The better ones goes to the Kildare St Club and still go to the Shelbourne
Can’t wait for Regina Doherty to knock on my door!
@Jen McC: she’ll make an excellent TD for Fingal West!
@David Finn: best laugh I’ve had all day. Cheers David!
@Jen McC:
because ?
Of all the TD’s in the land to pic for a photo. They really scraped the bottom there.
“Doherty has said she will run there in the next election” This underlines the state to which Irish politics has descended, a mediocre performer gets to pick and chose where to stand. If this comes to pass, the Commission will have much to answer for.
@Jim O’Sullivan: the commission was prohibitted from recommending 6 seaters
@Jim O’Sullivan: Why? Sure it’s up to the electorate to vote her in. Sure Jerry Adam’s ran in Louth and he’s not even from the country nevermind the county.
@Tom tom: nìl sè sin ceart.Jerry is an Irishman albeit from the occuppied part.
@Jim O’Sullivan: how ? History shows that MPs of Britain (Churchill , Boris ) and loads of Irish TDs , even MPs like Daniel O’Connell back in his day , decided for various reasons to stand for elections in different counties / cities. Churchill some how , despite being a Southern Toff with more connections to Ireland rather than Scotland (bar when he played soldier for a few months ) once stood elected in Dundee of all places It’s for the public to decide if they want to elect that blow in. O’Connell got elected to at least 3 different places over the years . TP O’Connor , Irish born , an Irish Home Ruler stood as MP for LIVERPOOL Besides , isn’t it suppose to be national politics rather than fix the road parish pump politics ?
@Willie Marty: he said “not from the country” . Said nothing about citizenship – nationality . Plenty of Irish citizens in the US ,but they aren’t from Ireland. NI os not part of the country known as Ireland . It’s part of the UK ! Moreover , Gerry is from Belfast Antrim , not even a man with family background in say South Armagh. He got parachuted into Louth (no issue there ) Pay more attention to what they said in the English language than trying badly to impress us with your pidgin levels of Irish !
@Willie Marty:
Our electoral system is a mess. Theres many versions of PR/STV etc. first past the post also has its merits and to me its an outrage that in a so called republic we have an upper house where lawmakers are appointed ratherbthan elected directly by and for the people.
@Jim O’Sullivan:
she never helped a murderer run for president
@Jim O’Sullivan:
she kept the christmas bonus so all the dole crowd will vote for her
Ps dum dum it’s Gerry,not Jerry!keep watching them auld cartoons!
@Blaney Richard: It’s “Jarry” , hi.
Oh Tom Tom I know what way you pull!west and something else!like your name ya need to be played like the drum ya name yourself after
@Blaney Richard: calling him a West Brit lol , (how original ) because he like most people of the Irish State see wee “Jarry” and his cronies as a bunch of murdering thugs who spent decades in fantasy land pretending that this Irish State did not exist and that their pals in the Ra were the true army council and lol, successors of the 1921 government . Lol. Norides Whinging about how the north was abandoned but Ignore the fact that their granddad’s of the 9 counties of Ulster fighting prowess between 1919-1921 was almost non existent in comparison to other counties like Cork (very sizeable unionist population ) or what they achieved 60-70 years later .Ulster boys abandoned the Anti Treaty of the south men by siding with Collins and the Treaty ! But , that never gets noticed .
@Christy Dolan:
I’ve never met a SF/IRA supporter who didn’t get nasty
threats etc
@Christy Dolan:
Jarry stayed silent while his brother worked in a youth club
The winners-Them
The losers-Us
If we had a recall system, like they have in Scotland and many other countries, we would be on our way to a democracy.
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