When I reported progress, I was saying that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries congratulated me on giving honour where honour was due on the question of local government. I want to emphasise that the Electoral (Amendment) Bill which is before the House at the moment—talk about gerrymandering— is deliberately taking two seats from Fianna Fáil in Galway. I have been reading the report of the debates on the 1968 Act and the comments made by the then Opposition. I also read the book by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Garret FitzGerald in which he said that the revision of the constituencies along those lines would be an excuse for the Protestants of the North not to come in here because of the gerrymandering at that time. At that time a member of the then Opposition from my own area commented on the partitioning of Clare and said what a terrible thing it was to partition Clare.
I am a member for the Clare-South Galway constituency. This highly respected Deputy from the constituency knows well that, whatever connection there is between the portion of Clare which is in with South Galway at the moment, there is no connection at all between Galway city and the proposed partition of Clare. There is no connection whatsoever between Lisdoonvarna, Ennistymon, Corofin and Galway city. I would ask the Minister to consider this seriously.
At that time a statement was made in this House that Clare could not elect a Deputy of its own. Do not forget that Clare did elect a Deputy of its own in the person of Deputy Dr. Loughnane after the last revision of the constituencies. If Clare is partitioned again, I bet that if he stands in West Galway he will be elected again. The change is meant to get a seat for Labour in West Galway and in my area we are to lose a seat according to the figures. According to the figures at the last election we have to lose two seats in the Galway area.
In 1968 a comment was made about the part of Roscommon which was in with Clare-South Galway. I come from very near the town of Ballinasloe. The people in the portion of South Roscommon which was in with Clare-South Galway do all their business in Ballinasloe. They wish to be in with part of Galway because they are connected in every way with the town of Ballinasloe. The Deputy in question said he was related to people in Clare. The map of the new West Galway constituency is the most amusing map I ever looked at. Headford is beside Lough Corrib and that is now in East Galway. This is being done to sweeten part of the new constituency for a Government Deputy. The line comes up and goes right into East Galway, takes in Craughwell village and puts it back into West Galway. It switches back again and takes in Gort town. The new West Galway constituency has the crookedest line you ever looked at.
The then Opposition said that there was gerrymandering in the revision of the constituencies and that the people in the Six Counties would be prevented from coming in here. We understood that all the angels and archangels were on that side of the House. All the speeches from the then Opposition were in favour of the setting up of a commission. I want to know what happened since. People complain when they are on one side of the House and when they go to the other side of the House they do the same thing, or a lot worse. According to the figures, we did not deliberately take seats from Deputies but this Bill is brought in deliberately to take two seats from Fianna Fáil in the Galway area. That cannot be denied. I may be one of the victims but that does not matter. We will fight all the way.
I do not intend to delay the House. I spoke at length on this Bill on the previous occasion. Crocodile tears were shed about Leitrim at the time of the previous revision. Leitrim will be split once again on this occasion and there is no justification for that. I have not been a Member of this House for very long and, while the Minister personally might not like to see me kicked out, this legislation will put some of us out of the House. I cannot change my mind where a principle is involved—perhaps I am not suited to the political life.
I consider the Minister to be a fair-minded man and I commend him for many of the things he has done in Local Government but I would ask him to reconsider the question of the revision of the constituencies. There are still enough electors in the west to return 30 Deputies but that number has been reduced to 28. The Minister should leave County Clare alone; it is big enough for a four-seat constituency while West Galway should have three seats. In my area, five Deputies will be fighting for four seats and three of the Deputies are on this side of the House. As I pointed out previously, it would take a Deputy three days to travel by car from Westport to Clifden and from there to Lisdoonvarna. The people from that area of Clare have nothing in common with the people in Galway city.
The Minister is a man of commonsense and I would ask him to do something about the revision of constituencies in the west. I am not familiar enough with the rest of the country to go into details about it. On this Bill one must be parochial because Deputies do not know enough about the geography of other counties. I know the geography of the west and the saddest aspect is that we are trying to drive people into the cities and towns. The rural community is losing all the time. When discussing the Estimate for the Department of Local Government with particular reference to county councillors, I said that the criterion should not be merely population. A rural Deputy must travel considerable distances to meet his constituents, whereas in towns and cities the Deputy concerned can meet his constituents quite easily. The people of rural Ireland have played their part in building this nation but their influence in directing the affairs of the country and in electing representatives to this House is getting smaller. I would appeal to the Minister to reconsider the revision of constituencies in the west.