Legislation allowing for changes in constituency boundaries for the Euro elections next year has been published by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.
It is expected Ireland will lose one of its 12 MEPs following the accession of Croatia to the EU and that will necessitate a change in the current constituency arrangements.
Under the terms of the Electoral, Local Government and Planning Development Bill published yesterday, a committee will be set up to revise the Euro boundaries if the expected change takes place.
At present there are four Euro constituencies, Dublin, East, North-West and South, each with three MEPs. It is expected a reduction to 11 seats for the country would result in a constituency revision providing for three constituencies, one with four seats and two with three each.
The Bill also allows for EU citizens to stand for election in a member state of which they are not nationals. Mr Hogan said the Bill also provided for the amendment of electoral, local government and planning and development law to implement the action programme for effective local government “Putting People First”.
