I move amendment No. 8:
In page 11, in the second column of the entry relating to South Tipperary after "except" to insert "the parts thereof which are comprised in the county constituencies of North Tipperary and Waterford" and to delete "the part thereof which is comprised in the county constituency of North Tipperary;
and, in the administrative county of Waterford, the district electoral divisions of:
Ballymacarbry, Graignagower, Gurteen, Kilmacomma, Kilronan, St. Mary's, in the former Rural District of Clonmel No. 2:
Dromana, Dromore, in the former Rural District of Dungarvan:
Ballyduff, Ballyhane, Ballyin, Ballynamult, Ballysaggartmore, Cappoquin, Castlerichard, Drumroe, Gortnapeaky, Kilcockan, Kilwatermoy East, Kilwatermoy West, Lismore Rural, Lismore Urban, Mocollop, Modelligo, Tallow, in the former Rural District of Lismore:
Templemichael, in the former Rural District of Youghal No. 2."
and in the third column to delete "Four" and substitute "Three".
Amendments Nos. 8 and 9 are consequential. The object of both is to get the Minister to consider the existing position in both constituencies. The Bill proposes to give South Tipperary four seats and Waterford three, the reverse of the present position. My amendment is not put down through any ill-will towards South Tipperary but because of the fact that the Minister is held within the confines of a High Court ruling which directs him to allocate a certain number of seats on population figures. As I see it, the Minister, when forced to face this problem of dealing with South Tipperary, North Tipperary and Waterford, found himself in the position that he had to give North Tipperary three seats and that it became imperative to transfer different areas as between South Tipperary and Waterford. Had he dealt with the whole of the county of Tipperary alone, I would have no quarrel with him. That would have been the natural way to deal with the problem with which he was faced.
Having dealt with Tipperary, he then had to decide as between South Tipperary and Waterford and to consider how many seats should be allocated to each area. He had also to conform with the ruling of the High Court. Looking at it from that point of view, according to the 1956 census on which this Bill is based we find that Waterford had a population of 74,031 as compared with South Tipperary's 73,780— a difference in Waterford's favour of over 300. Anybody contesting a Dáil constituency will know how vital such a majority can be sometimes.
Why, faced with these figures which he admitted here on April 29th, 1960, should the Minister ignore them and give South Tipperary the extra seat? Deputy Mulcahy has told us that, in the transfer of part of South Tipperary to North Tipperary, 1,531 voters were affected. I am quite sure that represents a population of 3,500. Therefore, in looking at South Tipperary in comparison with Waterford, the Minister will see immediately that the population of South Tipperary would then be not more than 70,000 people as against Waterford's 74,000. That brought up the majority in Waterford's favour to 4,000. Still the Minister, in his wisdom, ignored that fact also.
Then we come to another factor in Waterford's favour. The extension of the Waterford borough boundary added to the Waterford population a further 1,000 people, giving Waterford a population of 75,000 as against, as I said before, South Tipperary's 70,000. This new figure will take a lot of explaining, no matter how the Minister looks on it.
There is still another point which must be considered. Notwithstanding the High Court's decision, there entered into this matter the question of the majority of voters. In this case also, Waterford is far above South Tipperary. My belief is that Waterford has practically 2,000 more voters than has South Tipperary and if you add the 1,500 people mentioned by Deputy Mulcahy, you find that Waterford has 3,500 more voters than South Tipperary. Through the Waterford borough boundary extension, the official figures say Waterford benefited by an additional 398 voters. That would give Waterford nearly 4,000 more voters than South Tipperary.
Considering all these factors, I should be very grateful to the Minister if he would explain to me how he arrived at his rearrangement of these two constituencies. He spoke about the violation of natural boundaries. If that were the answer, I could understand it because one third of Waterford County was chopped off—earlier, I called it the rape of a county.