I beg to move the following amendment which stands in my name:
Section 1. To add at the end of the Section a new sub-section (3) as follows:—
(3) If a revision of constituencies as effected in accordance with Article 26 of the Constitution should result in a change in the boundaries of, or the number of members for, the constituency for which the member so elected was last elected to Dáil Eireann, the Oireachtas shall determine which constituency shall be deemed for the purpose of the preceding sub-section to be the constituency which last elected the said member to Dáil Eireann.
The amendment is not vital to the Bill, but is merely consequential to amendments that were carried in the Committee Stage. The Minister on that occasion pointed out that in the event of a revision of constituencies it might happen that the outgoing Speaker might find that he had no constituency owing to the fact that the constituency which had last elected him to the Dáil had been incorporated in some other constituency or had been divided up amongst a number of constituencies. This amendment proposes to deal with a situation such as that. It merely provides that in the contingency which I have mentioned, and which was the principal objection put up by the Minister, that the Oireachtas shall itself decide which constituency shall be deemed to be the constituency which last elected the Speaker of the Dáil.