Deputy Molloy speaks as if an adjustment between Clare and Galway is something new. It is not. There was an adjustment between those counties in the 1969 revision. It becomes a major cause for dissent only now because the areas being joined are slightly different from the 1969 revision.
I have been terribly patient during a very long discussion on this Bill. Deputies opposite, with one exception, persisted in saying that there was one amendment which might change and improve the Bill. That exception was in reference to the right of the Minister to decide whether or not additional powers should be given to provide— under temporary arrangements of electoral divisions—that the Minister might be able to say he was not satisfied with the proposals made. In that case I agree there might be something to it, even though the evidence has been that right down the years it has operated properly and there has been no trouble about it. With that exception we have had in this House an exhibition of bad manners by Fianna Fáil, something about which I am not a bit surprised. When they rose, one after the other they accused us of being bad mannered. Not alone did they repeat petty arguments on petty points but you, Sir, and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle were wrongly abused because they were not allowed continue it indefinitely. Having done that they try to give the impression now that they are the upholders of liberty in this House, that they are the people who stand for liberty in this country. That is a new thing Fianna Fáil represents —liberty or equality in this country.
We have had 64 hours of debate, over 60 of which have been taken up by Fianna Fáil speakers. Do they expect that they be allowed do any damn thing they want in this House? You, Sir, saw what happened on the last two Stages. You saw where the Fianna Fáil spokesman, having got up, insisted on holding the floor until the time came for putting the motion and then objected when I got up and did not allow the same thing to happen on the Final Stage. They must think we are terribly foolish if they imagine that we would agree to have that sort of thing continue.
Throughout the discussion on this Bill we have had allegations made that there was discrimination against the country areas in favour of the city. I want to make it clear again, on this stage, that in the Dublin area the average population per Deputy— mind you some people here seem to imagine that the population per Deputy and number of votes to elect a Deputy are one and the same thing; they are not; the number of votes represent those who cast a vote at an election for a Deputy; population includes the baby in the cradle—is 20,142. The average for the rest of the country is 20,115. There is no way in which anybody can get around that situation. That is slanted, even if only slightly so, towards the rural districts. I represent a rural constituency. It makes me laugh to hear Fianna Fáil Deputies over the last few weeks talk about how unfair I was to rural Deputies, particularly Deputy Molloy, when he went to the length of telling us tonight how unfair it was to break Leitrim in two. His predecessor, the last Minister for Local Government to draw up constituencies here, broke it in three. And, in the Custom House, there is evidence that Deputy Molloy intended breaking it into four uneven quarters in this Bill. Having suggested doing that, had he not a hard neck to come in here tonight and say to me that I was being unfair to Leitrim by talking about dividing it in two? As far as the rest of the country is concerned I have, as far as I possibly could, endeavoured to divide it in such a way that there would be the least breaking-up of county boundaries. Yet there has been a complaint because I put Cavan and Monaghan together. I said on an earlier Stage, and I repeat it now, that the people of Cavan and Monaghan, very decent people, are very alike in many ways. The Counties of Cavan and Monaghan are very alike. Except for a very small portion of Monaghan— less than 2,000 people in the Enniskeen area transferred to County Louth—the remainder of those two counties forms one constituency.
It has been said that we should give more representation to the Border areas. The Constitution or the High Court ruling, which govern how constituencies are drawn up here, make no reference whatever to Border areas. We have got to give the very same representation there as we do to any other place. When it was claimed here that Cavan on its own or Monaghan on its own was entitled to three Deputies, the people making that claim knew quite well that it was an inaccurate one and it could not be done. They knew that, because the number of people living in Counties Cavan and Monaghan would not be, on their own, entitled to three Deputies. When the two were put together they made enough for five Deputies and that is what they are getting. The remainder of the area from Meath and Louth—the area formerly attached to Cavan—are getting the extra Deputy to which they are entitled in their county and constituency.
It is utterly ridiculous to hear people come in on the discussion of this Bill and attempt to prove that we were doing what Fianna Fáil did. We heard a number of Deputies talking about setting up a commission. I do not want to deal at length with this because I would be out of order. I want to make two points. One is that the first time anyone in Fianna Fáil admitted that a commission might be a fair way to draw up constituencies was one minute after Deputy Jack Lynch, the former Taoiseach, had agreed that he lost the general election and he was then in favour of a commission drawing up constituencies. Until then—he had no use for a Commission of any kind. Recently we have had people, particularly Deputy Noel Lemass, say that they were not in favour of a commission. This is not a point which can be stressed at this Stage of the Bill. But I wanted to show the hypocrisy with which this whole matter has been dealt by Fianna Fáil. They should not imagine that they, and they only, are entitled to rule this country, because we have proved for 12 months that that is not true and we will prove it for many long years to come.
