Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 November 2018
100. Deputy Shane Cassells asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government when the statutory instrument giving effect to the recommendations in the reports of the local electoral area boundary committees will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47166/18]
View answerI established two independent Local Electoral Area Boundary Committees on 13 December 2017 to review and make recommendations on local electoral areas having regard to, among other things, the results of Census 2016 as well as the commitment to consider reducing the size of territorially large local electoral areas as set out in A Programme for Partnership Government (May 2016). The two Committees reported to me on 12 June 2018 and now stand dissolved.
On foot of the two reports, orders are currently being prepared within my Department under section 23 of the Local Government Act 2001 to give effect to the Committees' recommendations in relation to local electoral areas. It is anticipated that these orders will be signed later this year. The local electoral areas to be specified in these orders, and the number of members to be elected for each electoral area, will apply at the next local elections which are due to be held in late May 2019 in tandem with the elections for the 2019-2024 European Parliament.
