County group says risk of no local TD in Leitrim

The Save Leitrim campaign has claimed the Independent Boundary Commission made a series of errors that led to its recommending…

The Save Leitrim campaign has claimed the Independent Boundary Commission made a series of errors that led to its recommending that Leitrim be split between two constituencies from the next general election.

In a submission to the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, campaign representatives told TDs that various amendments could be made to leave Leitrim untouched.

They also claimed that if the current proposed boundary changes went ahead, it would be likely there would be no Leitrim-based TD after the next general election.

Leitrim is the least populated county in the country.

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However, a number of TDs said amending the recommendations of the independent commission would be creating a dangerous precedent.

At present Leitrim is in a four-seat constituency with Sligo, but will be split in half, with the northern part of the county combining with Sligo to form a new three-seat constituency. The southern part of the county will combine with Roscommon to form another three-seater.

Odran Flynn of the Save Leitrim Campaign told the committee yesterday that the redrawing of the Leitrim constituencies had been caused by a domino effect of population increases that saw Co Meath gaining an extra representative and being split into two three-seat constituencies.

He said the committee had taken part of Westmeath into the Meath West constituency to make it a three-seater. This was unnecessary, he said, if the boundary between the two Meath constituencies had been redrawn. The knock-on effect of separating Leitrim would not have been necessary. He said Sligo-Leitrim could have retained its four-seat status if part of west Cavan had been added, with a subsequent reduction of Cavan-Monaghan to four seats.

Independent Sligo-Leitrim TD Marian Harkin said she supported the proposal, describing it as "a solution we can put in place to deal with the problem".

Her constituency colleague, Fianna Fáil TD John Ellis from Leitrim, said the Oireachtas could not go against the recommendations of the independent commission, but should be putting down "a marker" to the commission that future boundary changes should respect the integrity of county boundaries.

Labour Party environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore, who said he was sympathetic to the cause of the Save Leitrim campaign, questioned how amendments to the commission's proposed changes could be made "fireproof", as opposed to setting a precedent for ignoring the recommendations of that body.

Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said that TDs and senators "have to look at the bigger picture". "If we interfere in one place, it won't just end there."