I do not think it is necessary for me to repeat all the arguments it was necessary for me to repeat on the Committee Stage. All the charges made by the Opposition have been effectively dealt with. It has been clearly established that this Bill is introduced because of the figures published in the report of the 1966 Census of Population. These figures disclosed that the majority of the present constituencies are no longer in conformity with the constitutional requirement as defined by the courts at the express request of the Fine Gael Party, and as endorsed by the people in the recent referendum.
The necessity to bring the constituencies into conformity with the Constitution at this stage—although there is another provision in the Constitution specifying a longer period for revision —now arises because of pressure by the Opposition Parties to do it. It is clear that the Constitution does, in fact, require the Government to accede to the demands of the Opposition in this regard.
I have never made any secret of the fact that neither I nor anyone else on the Government benches feel in any way enthusiastic about undertaking this task. We have been consistent all along in adhering to our viewpoint that this thing that is required of us, this breaching of county boundaries, this continuous uprooting of people from constituencies in which they have always voted, is objectionable. We asked to have this requirement removed. The Opposition did not agree, and the people did not agree. Because of that, this Bill now has to be introduced and these objectionable things have to be done. It is certainly not being done because of any desire on our part to do it, but because it is required by the Constitution. As I say, we believe this is undesirable and we believe that there is no democratic principle that requires it to be done. It is merely the interpretation of the words used in the Constitution that requires it to be done.
For example, we have the five counties of Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Meath and Kildare that have always, or almost always at any rate, been those five constituencies. We believe there should still be those five constituencies and, under the Bill, there will be a Cavan constituency, a Monaghan constituency, a Louth constituency, a Meath constituency and a Kildare constituency, involving the populations of those five counties, and those five counties only. We believe it would be preferable and quite democratic to leave those five counties intact, and have those five constituencies that have always been there but, as I said, we asked permission in the recent referendum to leave these five counties intact, and to retain those five constituencies without these unnecessary and undesirable transfers of population from one of these counties to another, but we were refused that permission. Now we have to go ahead and do what is being done.
I have agreed on a number of occasions throughout this debate that many different alternative solutions to this problem were possible. I expressed the opinion that the proposal put forward in the Bill was as good a solution as it was possible to achieve. Certainly I have no reason to change my mind having listened to the debate. I never claimed that every possible permutation and combination of constituencies had been examined, but that a reasonably detailed study of the constituencies had been made and I was personally satisfied that the least possible amount of disturbance consistent with having reasonably feasible constituencies would result. But, having seen the efforts produced by the Opposition, I am now more convinced than ever that what is being proposed is the most reasonable possible solution.
The main accusation made was the predictable one that the whole approach here is to try to gerrymander, but even on that the Opposition cannot be consistent. They should make up their minds whether this has been, as they allege, a skilful gerrymander. Gerrymandering, to my mind, appears to imply that the Party carrying out the gerrymandering will gain some electoral advantage from it. On the one hand, we are told that this has been a highly skilful gerrymander and, on the other hand, it is claimed that Fianna Fáil will be the losers by it. The fact is, as one Opposition Deputy happened to say before he realised what he was saying, that the information on which to base gerrymandering just is not available in this country. No one can say with any degree of certainty where the areas are which support the different Parties. No one knows exactly how the people in different district electoral divisions and townlands voted in the past, and certainly no one knows how they will continue to vote in the future.
It is quite clear from any objective examination of what is being done in this Bill that the whole approach has been to disturb the present pattern of the constituencies as little as possible, consistent with having feasible areas of representation, and, at the same time, complying with the constitutional requirements. It has been said that there was no clear pattern of approach on the part of the Government. I think our approach has been quite clear. As I said, it was to have as little disturbance as possible both of people from one county to another, and of the present constituency arrangements, and, secondly, there has been a tendency towards the creation of more three-seat constituencies. That is a tendency that has been developing over the years. This type of arrangement of the constituencies will, as Deputy O'Donnell of the Fine Gael Party said, make it more feasible for some Party to obtain sufficient seats at an election to form a Government. After all, at least one of the purposes of elections is to enable the people to choose a Government.
Throughout this debate the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party when they took part in the debate have interpreted this as meaning that the creation of three-seat constituencies must always be to the benefit of Fianna Fáil. We are hardly likely to argue against the proposition that the people are more likely to continue to give majority support to Fianna Fáil than to either of the Opposition Parties.
