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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 10 Dec 2002

Vol. 559 No. 1

Written Answers. - European Parliament Elections.

Seán Crowe

Ceist:

425 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the proposals which have been put to him by his Department, or anyone else, to deal with the reduction in the number of MEPs elected here following the passing of the Nice treaty; the discussions which have taken place on the issue; the alternative ways of electing MEPs which have been considered; his views on whether it will be necessary to redraw the constituencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25832/02]

The revision of the European Parliament constituencies will be a matter for the constituency commission, which will be established next year when the census report setting out the population of the State classified by area is published by the Central Statistics Office. This work of the constituency commission will obviously have to be guided by the applicable EU provisions in respect of seat allocations to member states in the European Parliament. While these provisions cannot be definitively established at this stage, care will be taken to align them with the work of the commission when the latter is established.

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