I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time.
The purpose of the Bill is to give effect to the constitutional provisions for the revision of Dáil constituencies. These provisions are quoted in the explanatory memorandum which was circulated to Deputies with the Bill, and it is unnecessary for me to take up the time of the House by quoting them again here.
Under the Bill, it is proposed to reduce the number of constituencies from 40 to 39 and the number of Deputies from 147 to 142, or two less than the maximum permitted by the Constitution on the basis of a population of 2,898,264 as ascertained at the census in April, 1956. These provisions of the Bill will, if accepted by the Oireachtas, come into effect on the next dissolution.
In deciding to recommend to the Oireachtas a close adherence to the maximum number of Deputies permitted by the Constitution, we were influenced by the consideration to which the former Taoiseach referred in the House last January. From each Dáil a Government must be formed and, assuming that the membership of the House is divided into two approximately equal groups, representing Government and Opposition, then you will have only half the total membership of the House from which to choose the members of the Government and Parliamentary Secretaries. I do not think that the fact that two Ministers can be appointed from among the membership of the Seanad is significant to this argument. It would obviously be undesirable to have the number of Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries too high a proportion of the Government side of the House.
Many Deputies on the other side of the House supported the arguments then for maintaining the membership of the Dáil at, or near, the maximum permitted by the Constitution. I am sure that Deputy Dockrell, Deputy O. J. Flanagan and Deputy O'Sullivan will not take it amiss if I refer to some of the arguments they used. Deputy O'Sullivan referred to the fact that as many as one-third of an outgoing Dáil may fail to secure reelection at a general election. This limits severely the pool of experienced legislators from which a Government or Opposition may be formed. The other Deputies referred to the amount of work which a Deputy must perform on behalf of his constituency or as chairman or member of Dáil committees, and pointed to the obvious risk of increasing this burden unduly by a severe reduction in the total Dáil membership.
The allocation of the numbers of Deputies to be returned by each constituency is governed by subsection 3 of Section 2 of Article 16 of the Constitution which provides that the ratio between the number of members to be elected at any time for each constituency, as ascertained at the last preceding census, shall, so far as it is practicable, be the same throughout the country.
In applying this Article, we must, as a legislative assembly, have regard to special circumstances and the practical problems facing a Deputy who takes a responsible view of his duties. In general, such special circumstances are mainly geographical or topographical, though in some cases the claim for special consideration on these grounds may be reinforced by economic factors. As evidence of the importance of such economic factors in particular areas, I need only refer to the legislation dealing with the Gaeltacht or undeveloped areas which the Oireachtas has enacted. One principle, however, which I submit is fundamental in the matter, is that it should be made as convenient as possible for all citizens who may wish to interview their Deputy on any serious matter affecting themselves, their neighbours, or their district, to do so.
Equally it should be made as convenient as possible for a Deputy to keep in touch with his constituents. Indeed, it is more than a matter of convenience for, as we all know, it is in a Deputy's ability to keep in touch with the affairs and interests of his constituents conscientiously and continually, that much of his strength and value to the House and to the nation lies. This presents a very practical problem in some of the large sprawling rural constituencies. As Deputy O'Sullivan said when speaking on an amendment to the Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill last January:—
"Consequently, it is vital that we should have taken into account not alone the factor of population in deciding the outlines of constituencies and the membership of the House, but also that we should bear in mind that in rural constituencies Deputies are called upon to do a great deal of travelling in order to maintain that contact with the electorate which is desirable, if they are to reflect public opinion."
That is from the Dáil Debates, Vol. 172, No. 2, Col. 242.
The extent of the variation in the density of distribution of the population can be quite startling. In Dublin City, the number of persons per 100 acres is 1,892. In County Dublin, it is 83. In Cork City, the figure is 2,391 which is considerably higher than in Dublin City. At the other end of the scale is County Clare where the figure is 9.8 persons per 100 acres. I do not think that any Deputy would suggest that such discrepancies should be ignored in the interests of statistical uniformity.
The people a rural Deputy represents are not, for the most part, concentrated in small areas but are scattered over a wide area and sometimes in remote and rather inaccessible places. Such people do not enjoy the same facilities for consulting with a Deputy as people who live close to, or in the same town or city as their representative. At this point I might mention that people in such areas are generally entitled to a greater variety of State benefits, some of these provided exclusively for such areas, than people living in the more fertile districts, and consequently they have to enlist the aid of a Deputy more frequently.
The nature of the western seaboard adds considerably to the difficulties of a Deputy in keeping in touch with his constituency. I may be permitted to mention my own constituency of East Donegal. Travelling from Fanad Head to Malin Head—two points distant 12 miles apart as the crow flies—involves a journey of 88 miles. This is further than a journey from Dublin to Monaghan and almost as far as from Dublin to Thurles. Much the same instances of cases where long journeys over mountainous territory have to be made could be given in the case of the other western constituencies.
I need hardly emphasise that a mere recital of distances and special circumstances can give only a faint idea of the amount of work which a Deputy, representing a constituency in these counties, may have to do if he is to keep in touch with his constituents and gather from them their views on matters of immediate day-to-day concern on which each Deputy must depend as the basis for the views and opinions which he himself will express, and seek to promote in this House. The difficulties of keeping in touch are clearly out of proportion to those of an urban Deputy who is elected to represent an area of high population density.
It is for these reasons that the proposals made in the Bill may appear, if viewed in a purely statistical light, to err on the side of leniency, so far as rural representation is concerned. In our view, however, they go as far as it is practicable to go to ensure equal representation for urban and rural constituencies alike in compliance with the constitutional provisions.
In the 12 years since the last revision took place, changes in population, as recorded in the census taken in 1956, by which we must be guided in this matter, have thrown the ratio of population per member in many constituencies seriously out of line. In the County Dublin constituency, the ratio is one member to each 45,153 of the population—by far the highest ratio in the country. In the adjoining constituency of Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown, it is 33,921 to each member. On the other hand, in the city, the ratios are in many instances extremely low. It will be a surprise to many people to know that in Dublin North (Central), largely because of Corporation slum clearance and demolition work, the ratio had fallen, at the time the 1956 census was taken, to as low as one member to each 14,120 of the population. In South (Central), it is one member to each 17,324 and in the constituency of Dublin South (East) it is one member to each 18,325.
The extension of the city boundary affords a convenient way of lessening these disparities. At this point, I may perhaps be permitted to remind Deputies that the areas brought within the city do not automatically become part of the city constituencies. Large areas in what is now the city of Dublin have, up to the present, remained in the County Dublin constituency. Those areas, which include the Artane, Baldoyle, Ballyfermot, Beann Éadair. Coolock, Crumlin West, Finglas East, Finglas West, Rathfarnham South and Santry Wards, contain a population, according to the 1956 census, of 70,916. Unfortunately, this population was insufficient to bring the city constituencies up to the average for the Dublin area as a whole and we found it necessary to propose a departure from the city boundary to make up the deficiency. The most suitable area for this purpose, from the point of view of size and homogeneity, was that about Dundrum, Merrion, Milltown and Roebuck, containing in all a population of 22,687; and we propose the addition of this area to the city for the purposes of Dáil elections.
The changes in the city constituencies follow more or less as a corollary of these alterations. On the north side, the new constituencies will generally be the same as the old ones but will include the contiguous areas from the county constituency and some minor modifications to make the new constituencies conform with the ward boundaries.
On the south side, our task was complicated by the necessity to which I have referred, of going outside the city boundary for the requisite additional population. The new constituencies on the south side depart, unavoidably, to a greater extent than the north side constituencies from existing administrative boundaries, though this departure is not so serious as it may seem at first sight.
The area around Dundrum, Merrion, Milltown and Roebuck is made up of complete townlands. It is proposed to include this area in the South (East) constituency. The area is urban in character and its interests are not incompatible with those of the rest of the constituency. The same applies to the area in the Rathmines West ward which will also be added to the South (East) constituency to balance the loss of portion of the Pembroke East and Pembroke West wards to Dublin South (Central).
The South (West) constituency will lose portion of Rathmines West ward to South (East) and portion of Kilmainham ward to South (Central) and, on its outer boundary, will gain the Ballyfermot, Crumlin West and Rathfarnham South wards.
I have dealt by implication with the accretions to the South (Central) constituency which will result from these changes.
The new boundary of the county constituency will follow the city boundary from Baldoyle to Churchtown where it will leave it to follow the old union and rural district boundary southwards to the county boundary. At present the boundary of the county constituency in this area leaves the city boundary at Templeogue and follows the western boundaries of the district electoral divisions of Rathfarnham and Whitechurch southwards to the county boundary. The change here means a gain to the county of the two district electoral divisions from the Dun Laoghaire and Rathdown constituency.
In addition to this loss, the Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown constituency will cede the area about Dundrum, Merrion, Milltown and Roebuck which will be transferred to the South (East) constituency and, on the south, the part of the district electoral division of Rathmichael which was transferred to County Wicklow in 1957. This last change does not involve much territory and the population in the area amounts to 774. The change is proposed in accordance with our policy of conforming with present administrative boundaries to the greatest possible extent.
Our task of dealing with population changes in other areas did not involve quite so many alterations as in the Dublin area. In each of the four constituencies of Cavan, Longford-Westmeath, Roscommon and Wexford we propose a reduction of one member without any alteration in the boundaries.
The Cork area is, after Dublin, that containing the largest concentration of population in the country, with a total representation at present of 17 Deputies.
We propose no change in the present representation or boundaries of Cork city constituency but a reduction is proposed in the number of members to be returned by the county from 12 to 11, as well as a re-drawing of the constituency boundaries in the county so as to constitute one five-member constituency in mid-Cork and two three-member constituencies in East Cork and West Cork to replace the four existing three-member constituencies.
In County Limerick, a minor change is proposed in order to transfer some of the surplus population from East Limerick to West Limerick. The number involved is 2,582.
Since the last constituency revision, a small part of County Dublin, as I have mentioned, has been added to County Wicklow and now forms part of the Bray urban district, and the Waterford County Borough has been extended to include an area which was formerly in County Kilkenny. It is proposed in the Bill to alter the boundaries of the Wicklow and Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown constituencies as well as the boundaries of the Carlow-Kilkenny and Waterford constituencies in order to make them conform with the changed administrative boundaries.
The provisions of the Bill itself follow the lines of the 1947 Act and do not, I think, need any elaborate explanation at this stage.
In conclusion, I may perhaps save Deputies some expenditure of time and trouble in calculation by saying that the Bill provides for eight five-member and nine four-member constituencies and for exactly the same number of three-member constituencies as exist at present, namely, twenty-two. There are at present nine five-member and nine four-member constituencies.